The Odd Ones Out
by 13taylorfan
Summary: 'Through helping others, we heal ourselves' Hadley Wilde is falling apart. She's lost. Desperately looking for something to make her feel... well, anything. Sirius Black is living for the moment, living fully and fastly trying to outrun his past, at the same time worried for his good friend. What happens when the two realise that the key to saving themselves, is saving each other?
1. Returning to Hogwarts

_**Chapter 1 - Returning to Hogwarts.**_

"No," I groaned, as I put my pumpkin juice down with unnecessary force, which caused it to splash over the edges of the cup. I propped my elbows on the table and buried my head in my hands. "Please tell me that _he _is not on his way over _here_."

"I'm afraid we can't lie to you." Lily sighed, undoubtedly rolling her eyes. Meredith, who was sitting by my side just laughed and patted me on the back. Every year without fail I had to put up with this prat.

"Hadley Wilde! Anyone would think that you weren't pleased to see me," his voice was getting closer, "It's a good thing I know better or you would have hurt my feelings." I looked up to see Sirius Black sitting on top of the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, his big muddy shoes on the bench beside me, with a look of mock hurt on his face and his hand on his heart.

"Your right, I'm incredibly sorry." I smiled sarcastically, "Nothing says 'Welcome Back to Hogwarts' like being harassed by an overgrown child." Sirius just let out a bark of a laugh and jumped down to sit on the bench beside me.

Beside Sirius his group of friends sat down, the Marauders as they liked to call themselves. James Potter, who was staring admiringly at an amused Lily, Remus Lupin, who shot me an apologetic look on behalf of his friend, and Peter Pettigrew who was grinning in awe at Sirius and shuffling awkwardly.

It was only the first day back and Sirius was already getting under my skin. He hadn't even lasted a few hours before coming over to hassle the three of us. Well not really the three of us, _me_. That night we had all returned for our 6th year of learning at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and for most of these years I had unluckily been chosen as the object of Sirius Blacks torment and teasing. I didn't have any problems with the rest of the Marauders, in fact I considered myself to be good friends with James and Remus. Peter was too quiet to become good friends with anyone else outside of the foursome. However, It was only Sirius who seemed to feel the need to - loudly and publicly- claim his undying love for me at every chance he had, only because he knew it got on my nerves. His outbursts were constantly being undermined though by he fact that he was snogging almost every girl in our year, the year above and the year below.

As much as i continually claimed that i disliked or was annoyed by Sirius, it only ever lasted about two or three weeks. Truth of the matter was that our two groups of friends were very close, meaning that as much as i claimed it wasn't true, by the end of our first few weeks at school Sirius and I would be back to normal. Good friends. But for now at least, he teases me rotten.

At the table Sirius flung an arm around my shoulders and sighed, "Now, now Miss Wilde, we all know that you love me really." He exclaimed this loudly enough so that the remaining Gryffindors, who had stayed to hang around after the feast, all looked round. Some giggled as Sirius grinned widely towards them, holding me in a tight grip. Others simply rolled their eyes and smirked, Sirius' and I's long history of loud arguments and tormenting had long since been news to our peers.

"Come on Hadley, give the boy a break!" James laughed. Sirius' best friend had always enjoyed his torturing of me, it amused him. Also, since I was good friends with Lily Evans, it gave him an excuse to be around the girl he had admired for the past few years.

"Yeah! Come on honey, we've been waiting to hear it for quite some time now. Say it. _You know you love me_." he teased. His grey eyes were dancing in delight as he tormented his favourite target.

I managed to squirm out of his grip and elbow him in the ribs, "Well, thank you Sirius, you've managed to put me off my pudding." I sighed pushing the bowl of apple pie away from me.

"All the more for me then!" he smiled triumphantly pulling the bowl towards himself. He flicked his dark hair out of his face before shovelling it into his mouth. "Look at us two sharing dessert, how romantic!"

His eating habits were disgusting, how his friends put up with it was beyond me. I couldn't help myself. As he was chewing a rather large mouthful, I reached up and put two of my fingers under his chin. When he turned to me with his grey eyes wide I snapped his jaw shut. "Eat. With. Your. Mouth. Closed." Both the Marauders and Lily and Meredith burst into howls of laughter.

Even Sirius himself grinned -albeit his mouth was still full. He turned to the Remus and James, "She's teaching me so much!"

Even I had to laugh. Sirius did have his moments of humour, even though they were rarer than he himself believed. I rolled my eyes and leaned forward to look past Sirius to James and Remus with a smirk on my face. "So, how were your holidays?" I asked.

Half an hour later curfew was approaching. Meredith and Peter were in conversation, Sirius lounged lazily trying to rest his head on my lap with me pushing him off as Remus and I talked about the NEWT subjects we were planning on taking and poor James was trying to impress Lily. As usual.

For many years now James Potter had been trying to win over Lily Evans. Much to Lily's chagrin. His many attempts to get the red-haired witch to go out with him had been met with nothing more than Lily calling him an 'arrogant toe-rag' and storming off. Although I had agreed with Lily when we were in third year and it all began, I had noticed James had growing out of his arrogant ways in the past year and to me he seemed to be a much better person since. This was something Lily seemed to have missed though. The whole school was rooting for James. Their story was gossip for everyone and would probably go down in Hogwarts history as the longest chase ever. Everyone was waiting for the day for that Lily Evans would say yes to James Potter.

"We should probably get going," Meredith yawned as she looked around at the empty dining hall, without meaning to be, we were the last ones there.

To be honest, I've never had good balance. I tend to trip and fall. A lot. This has caused Lily and Meredith to refer to me as 'Bambi' on more than a few occasions. So when I was getting up off of the bench and walking towards the doors it was no surprise to anyone when I was suddenly flying through the air, on my way to crashing down onto the hard, stone floor. Luckily just before impact I felt two arms grab me at each side and haul me upright. I looked up to see James, with his his ruffled up brown hair and hazel eyes laughing, on my left and Sirius grinning on my right. "Wow, looks like Quidditch is teaching you boys something. Nice reflexes. Thanks."

Lily walked over as we were walking up the stairs towards Gryffindor tower, she was still giggling as she threw an arm around my waist and shook her head, "Yet you still wonder how the name Bambi sticks?"

"Bambi, huh?" Sirius pondered, he had a finger tapping on his chin as he wondered, his eyes screwed up in concentration. "I think I like that one. I might have to borrow it Lily."

I looked up at him -yes I actually had to look _up_ at him, at six-foot-four not many people looked down- with a look that clearly said 'Don't-Even-Try-It', apparently the meaning was lost in translation because he just grinned down at me. I'd be lying if I said that Sirius Black wasn't attractive. He was. He knew it. Everyone else knew it. His grey eyes were constantly lit up with laughter, his dark hair was longer than average and tended to fall into his eyes which just made girls swoon even more. Also his features had an aristocratic air about them which had every girl in the school falling over him. He knew this and didn't hesitate in taking advantage of it. He'd flash that special 'Sirius Smile' and every girl in a five mile radius would melt and any trouble would be forgotten.

It didn't work on me though. This seemed to do nothing but to make him more determined to have me fall at his feet. As if.

It didn't take me too long to prove that the nickname suited. Even for me this was clumsy. When walking up the stairs in the Entrance Hall there was a certain trick stair that all Hogwarts students knew to avoid. I'd once seen a first year boy, who obviously hadn't heard about the stair, he was skipping up the stairs when his leg fell right through it. After nobody could manage to muster up the strength required to pull him out, Professor McGonagall had been called to get the poor embarrassed boy out. So after seeing that I had no desire to get stuck and simply skipped the step. Only for 'Bambi' it wasn't so simple. When my foot landed on the next step it slipped leaving me on my knees, clinging to the banister so that I didn't fall down the trick stair.

"Has she been drinking Fire Whiskey?" James asked as he pulled his eyebrows together in confusion, whilst the rest of the group were in stitches of laughter. "Nobody can seriously be that clumsy without being completely drunk!"

I myself gave a laugh. "Fire Whiskey?" I asked, "No I didn't bring any with me, I still have quite a large stash from last year." I grinned as I continued up the stairs.

"I'm going to pretend I never heard that." Remus laughed looking down at his Prefect badge and rolling his eyes. Lily did the same. Both had been named Prefects the previous year and were taking it very seriously, well, apparently not too seriously.

"You can, but I'm not!" Sirius and James came up on either side of me and linked their arms through mine as we walked through the corridor. "Large stash of Fire Whiskey, huh? How large would you say?" James asked.

"Forget about it." I dead panned. "There is no way that you four are getting your hands on my stock." I laughed.

Sirius looked incredulously at James shaking his head. "And here was I thinking we'd made headway with the desserts. Come on Hadley, share with us." Sirius gave me the smile that he used on professors when he was trying to get out of trouble.

"Nice try, Black, but that smile won't work on me." I pinched his cheeks before laughing and walking ahead, shaking my head at his attempt to make me melt.

"You'll fall for my dazzling charms one day, Wilde!" he chuckled.

"Eurgh, please!" Lily scoffed. "Why can't we swap you two," she pointed towards Sirius and James, "for another Remus. He's such a nice boy, right?" She looked towards Meredith and I for confirmation.

"Always causing trouble you two are." Meredith nodded with a grin.

"Yeah, we like him so much better than you two!" I agreed, slinging an arm around Remus' shoulders and sticking my tongue out at them.

"Tell me this isn't so!" Sirius gasped in an overly-dramatic fashion, causing all of us to double over in laughter, "The girl of my dreams, the reason for my existence, my future _bride-to-be_ prefers my best friend over me?" I wasn't looking because I had tears of laughter in my eyes but I suddenly felt myself being lifted by two arms – two very strong arms, might I add – and being whisked away. "Do I need to challenge you to a duel my dearest Moony?" Sirius asked pretending to reach for his wand, "or do I trust that you will leave my fair Hadley and I in peace?"

"You have my word, Padfoot." Remus chuckled. There it was again. The weird nicknames. Every so often they would call each other by these strange names that had no obvious meaning. I'd no reason to ask why but the names chipped away at me sometimes. What did they mean? Not that I would ever ask. I wouldn't give Sirius the satisfaction.

"Well in any case, we shan't invite him to the wedding. You know just to be safe." Sirius shook his head back and let out a bark-like laugh.

"There will be no wedding..." I started saying but Sirius just shook my words off and once again grabbed me so that somehow we were waltzing, very quickly, down the corridor and towards the portrait of the Fat Lady. At first I tried to squirm out of his arms, but the boy was just too strong. Eventually I dissolved into fits of laughter and couldn't of tried to fight him off if I'd wanted to. There were still people walking through the halls who laughed or whooped when we passed.

"What's going on?" a small voice asked as we approached the portrait. I could hear Lily, Meredith and the remaining Marauders coming behind us.

Sirius stopped and I managed to stop my head from spinning to look down and see a small girl with a pale blonde ponytail and eyes the lightest blue you'd ever seen.

"Oh, hi..." I began, but again my words were lost due to Sirius.

"Haven't you heard?" Sirius grinned putting an arm around my shoulders and pulling me towards his side, "We're getting married!" The last of this was drowned out in a groan as I hit him over the head.

"What I'm getting another brother?" the small girl asked with her eyebrows raised. It was a look I knew well, I had been putting up for it for eleven years.

"Ah," Sirius smiled with a knowing look, "You must be the latest of the Wilde family to come to Hogwarts."

Indeed she was. I had a very large family, all of whom were attending Hogwarts, except my older brother, Seth, who was an Obliviator for the Ministry of Magic. In school I had two older twin sisters who were in the year above, Indie and Savannah. I had a younger sister, Kendall who was in her fourth year and Darcy who was now beginning her first year at Hogwarts. It was hard for people to believe that we were related, we just looked so different. Well, _I_ didn't really look a lot like them. All of my sisters had the same light blonde hair and pale skin that my mother had, whereas my brother and I had inherited my Dad's incredibly dark hair and a slight natural tan. What I did share with my sisters though was our abnormally pale blue eyes. Paler than the eyes of anyone I'd ever seen. On my sisters they looked natural and pretty. On me, however, they were striking. Contrasting with my dark hair they made for an unusual pairing.

"Yeah, I'm Darcy." she smiled. "Who're you?" Well she was never one for beating around the bush.

"I am the very..." Sirius began with his voice taking on an arrogant tone before I cut him off.

"Honestly Darcy, you don't even want to know who he is." I turned away from Darcy to an amused Sirius who was grinning at the rest of our group as they entered the common room through the portrait hole. Over Sirius' shoulder I notice a cluster of giggling girls from the year below, all of whom were checking out Sirius and sending dirty looks my way. "Hey Sirius, why don't you go play with your fan club, leave me alone for a change."

"As you wish, Hadley! Just know they'll never replace you!" Sirius swept down into a low bow in front of me then sent a wink in Darcy's direction before stepping through the portrait hole with his followers right behind him.

When the Fat Lady swung shut I turned back to Darcy who had a worried look on her face. "Your common room is on the other side of the castle, Darce, are you okay?" Earlier that evening Darcy had been sorted into Ravenclaw, just like all of my other siblings. Another thing that set me apart from my family, I was the only Wilde to be sorted into Gryffindor.

"I was just worried that you might be, um, I don't know. A little upset with me?" Darcy had her eyes on the ground and was shuffling about not looking me in the eye.

"Why on earth would I be upset with you Darcy?" I asked softly.

"Just because I knew you really wanted someone to be in Gryffindor with you and you know..." she trailed off and looked up at me with the huge eyes that we shared.

I gave out a small laugh and sat down next to her, leaning against the wall and stretching out my legs. "Don't be ridiculous. I am _crazy_ proud of you for being in Ravenclaw, do you know how smart that means you are going to be? How smart you already are?"

"Yeah I guess." There was a small smile tugging at her lips and before long it was there for everyone to see.

"You wait and see. I'll bet that by the time you leave Hogwarts you'll be ten times smarter than Me, Kendall, Savannah, Indi and Seth combined." That had her grinning, I stood up and gave her a quick hug, "Do you want me to walk you down to the fifth floor?"

* * *

**Sirius' POV**

Ten minutes it took. Ten _bloody_ minutes to get rid of those awful hangers on that followed him about like the plague. Granted they were a lot easier on they eye than the plague was. During this time he had been forced to hide out in his dorm while they grew bored and looked for something else to do. He did appreciate the time alone in the dorm though, he was glad to finally be home. Not that staying with the Potters wasn't great, it was, but Hogwarts had always been home for Sirius. A place to forget that he was being ostracised by his family, a place to forget that he had ever been a member of that awful family to begin with. Anyway, that was all behind him. It had been a year since he had ran away from the House of Black and he hadn't looked back.

Eventually when Sirius though that everything had finally gone quiet at the base of the staircase, where the group of girls had been waiting, he left the dorm and walked down into the common room. Down there he found James, Remus and Peter where they usually were, sitting in their favourite armchairs by the fire. James was laughing at a story he was avidly telling to an engrossed Peter, while Remus sat with a book on his lap as usual.

As Sirius approached he noticed that his chair wasn't vacant like he'd thought. Someone was sitting sideways so that a long pair of tanned legs were hanging over the edge of the chairs arm. As he got even closer he noticed the red shoes and instantly knew who it was. She'd told him what they were called once before, what were they... cond, no... conva, not that either. Converse! That's what they were. They must have been some sort of muggle shoes, her mother was muggle born after all.

Sirius walked up to the chair and peered at Hadley over the back of the armchair, "I believe your in my seat Miss Wilde." he smirked.

To Sirius Black, Hadley Wilde was nothing but a complete and utter contradiction. _Everything_ about the girl contradicted itself. Her hair was darker than his and shined in even the dullest light which was a complete and utter contrast to a pair of the biggest and palest blue eyes he'd ever seen. They seemed to see through everything, which gave Sirius shudders. She probably had the longest legs in Britain, yet she barely stood a five-foot-six. She spent most of her time indoors during the year, however she seemed to have a golden tan year round. She could be scalding him for teasing her in one minute then laughing along with him the next.

All in all, Hadley confused him, which was not something that he had ever had to deal with before. Sirius had always considered himself to be a hit with the opposite sex, until he met her of course. She didn't seem to fall for any of his normal tricks which he found intriguing. Why? He wouldn't say it bothered him. Not out loud anyway, but at first he'd been knocked when she didn't fall at his feet straight away. Now the two were too good friends – well maybe not friends, but they were close – that Sirius didn't even think of her that way any longer. They both knew that his constant flirting was nothing more than him completely taking the piss out of her.

Back in the common room, Hadley just rolled her eyes and looked back to the story that James was telling without moving out of his chair. So Sirius took matters into his own hands. With a grin on his face he flicked his hair out of his eyes and walked around to stand in front of her.

"What are you...Sirius! _No!_" she whacked him over the head, on the shoulder and on the back as Sirius lifted her off of the chair and gently dumped her on the carpet by the side of the fire, before sitting down in his chair with a content smile spread across his face.

"I did ask politely," he teased shrugging his shoulders.

"Ughhh! Your such an arrogant git, Black!" she yelled before storming up the stairs while Sirius sat chuckling in the chair.

"You do realise one of these days that girl is actually going to kill you right?" Remus pointed out with a laugh.

"Nah, I think it'll go the opposite way." James chimed in. "And I'm willing to bet that Sirius will make the first move."

"Prongs, what are you even on about?" Sirius asked lazily as he drew shapes in the fire with his wand.

"Are you kidding me, Padfoot?" James asked ruffling up his hair, which already stuck up in every direction, "It's obvious to everybody that you fancy Hadley!"

"Shut up, James. I only tease the girl." Sirius had heard it all before. James and Remus had some sort of idea in their apparently tiny brains that his tormenting of Hadley meant that they were soul mates or whatever crap it was they went on about. "If I liked the girl so much why would I be going around snogging about every other girl in the school? Oh, yeah, that's right. Because I don't."

"Well don't say we didn't warn you, one of these days its going to hit you like a ton of bricks." Remus told him.

"Yep, she's either going to kill you or kiss you, mate. For your sake I hope it's the latter, that girl could tear you to shreds."

* * *

**Hadley**

"Are you serious?" Meredith asked with her eyes wide and her small pink lips parted.

"Sure am." I told her before getting changed into something to sleep in.

"That's insane. The last guy to ask you out was _Nathan_? But hold on," Lily frowned and her eyebrows pulled together as she did the maths in her head, "He asked you out eight months ago and then you were together for five months. Then he broke up with you. Right?"

"Gee thanks for sugar coating it." I laughed.

"I just don't get it though. Not _one_ guy has asked you out since then?" Lily asked sounding perplexed.

"No. Why would they?" I laughed. I was too busy looking for my wand under my pillow and under my four-poster bed that I never noticed the silence. Until I looked up to see Lily, Meredith and the two other girls in our dorm, Bonnie and Diana, staring at me incredulously with their eyes wide and jaws open. I just froze, what had I done?

"Is she serious?" asked Diana turning to Lily.

"There is no way she just said that." Meredith narrowed her eyes as if waiting for me to come out with a punchline.

"'_Why would they?'_ Did you seriously just ask that?" Lily asked in a voice that made it seem as if the answer should be obvious. "Your _beautiful,_ Hadley."

I had to laugh at that, "I'm not beautiful, I'm just.." I let my sentence trail into silence and just shrugged.

"Hadley! There is no way you don't see this. You are completely beautiful. I don't just mean _pretty_. I mean _incredibly drop-dead gorgeous._" Lily continued on.

"Don't you see the way the whole male population of Hogwarts look at you?" Bonnie smiled.

"Don't be ridiculous." I chuckled. These girls were seriously out of their minds. Lily was beautiful. Meredith was beautiful. Lily with her long fiery red hair and sparkling green eyes. Meredith with her dark brown eyes and long, thick lashes. Me? I was just average.

"I know what it is!" Meredith exclaimed before doubling over in laughter, "Do you remember what happened last year after Nathan broke up with you?"

"Glad you can see some humour in my misery, I was heart broken for a week!" I pointed out. "No, what happened?"

"Sirius broke his nose!" Lily remembered before also laughing along, "He hit him so hard I thought he would have been knocked out."

"That was completely unrelated," I protested, "Sirius has never like liked Nathan plus when that happened he didn't even know that he'd dumped me."

"Yeah but had you told James?" asked Diana. "Or Remus?"

"Well, maybe. I can't really remember." I shrugged still looking around. _Where the hell was my wand?_

"Every guy in this castle is probably afraid to come near you cause they figure he'll hex them into oblivion." Meredith giggled.

"Okay let's not start with the list of reasons for my lack of a love life, we'll be here all night." I joked, everyone else rolled their eyes or groaned. "Hey Lily can I borrow your wand? I think I've left mine down in the common room."

She tossed it over and I checked the clock on my bedside table, _1.46am. _Good so I didn't need to pull a cloak over myself, nobody would be down there this late to see me like this.

"_Lumos._" I said as I closed the door to the dorm behind me. The tip of the wand lit up leading me down the twisted staircase to the common room.

After only two minutes of looking I found it underneath the chair that I had been sitting in earlier. It must have fallen out when Sirius had lifted me off of the seat, "Sirius, you bastard." I whispered to myself.

"A bit harsh, don't you think?" I shot up at the sound of another voice, in the process managing to hit my head hard off the edge of a nearby table.

I looked up to see none other than all four Marauders, who had obviously just climbed through the portrait hole. The smirk on Sirius' face told me that he had been the one to speak.

"Not harsh enough if you ask me," I scowled, holding my hand over the searing pain in my skull. "What the hell were you doing out so late anyway? I doubt you three felt the urge to assist Remus on his patrol of the corridors." James opened his mouth to speak, but I just shook my head. "You know what? I don't even want to know what you boys get up to in an empty castle in the middle of the night."

I swiftly turned on my heel and made my way back up the stairs to the dorm, but before I got halfway Sirius was calling on me.

"Hey, Bambi?" He smirked. There was nothing I wanted to do more than to permanently wipe that smirk from his face.

"What?" I snapped.

"Nice legs." he grinned.

_What? _I looked down only to remember that I was dressed for bed_._ I was wearing nothing more than a tight black tank top and a pair of black knickers._ Could this possibly be any more embarrassing? _I held out my wand and made a pillow from the couch fly over and hit Sirius over the head. As I climbed the rest of the stairs I could hear his bark of a laugh all the way up until I closed the door of the dorm behind me.

* * *

_**I'm not really a writer but I decided to give this my best shot! There will be more chapters but as this is my first attempt at anything like this I would appreciate it if you would take the time to review? I need some constructive criticism! :) thank you for reading!**_


	2. Shake the Hand, Loverboy

_**Chapter 2 – Shake the hand, Loverboy.**_

I wasn't awake. Not yet. I was floating in an in-between state, halfway between unconsciousness and reality. This bed was far too comfortable, how did they expect students to be up in time for classes when the beds they provided were just so damn comfy.

Wait – classes! Today was the first full day back at Hogwarts, how could I forget! Damn those beds. I shot up out of bed, praying I hadn't slept in. I quickly surveyed the dorm room. Empty.

_Shit. _Like an idiot I ran around the dorm looking for my school clothes, _how was everything so scattered when we only got back yesterday? _I was hopping on one foot whilst brushing my teeth and pulling up my knee-high black socks at the same time when I fell flat on my face. Luckily there was nobody around to witness how much of a clumsy idiot I was. At top speed I buttoned my shirt and pulled up my skirt, it was a bit shorter than regulation uniform allowed but no one ever seemed to notice anyway.

Finally after five minutes I closed the dorm door behind me. Even I was impressed with myself, I'd only woken up about seven minutes ago and I'd managed to get washed, dressed and even sweep on some dark mascara and a dark pink lip colour. It was only when I reached the common room and saw a room full of people that I realised my rushing had been unnecessary. I glanced at the large grand-father clock in a corner by the staircases and groaned when I realised it was only _8.05am. _

"Are you kidding me?" I moaned, passing students giving me quizzical looks for speaking to myself. Classes didn't even start for another bloody hour! Well, there was nothing else to do but go down to breakfast and try to find Lily and Meredith.

I scanned the Gryffindor table but the two were nowhere in sight. Yawning I walked halfway down the long table and sat myself down beside James, Remus and Peter.

"I am in desperate need of food and coffee. I'm just not sure which is more important." I joked as I took in the sight of every single breakfast food I could imagine. After filling my plate with everything I could reach and filling a mug with black coffee I realised that they hadn't even said as much as 'Good Morning' to me. "Okay, what's with the silent treatment?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

I turned to look at them and neither of the three met my eyes. James was pushing some eggs around his plate, Remus was blushing whilst pretending to read the Daily Prophet and Peter was staring so hard at his orange juice that I thought it would combust.

Ah, now I get it. "Is this about last night?" I sighed, they stayed silent but I knew I was right, James' fork froze on his plate, Remus blushed even more furiously and Peter outright stared at me. "Look, it wasn't a big deal. Stop making it weird." I laughed. "Hey, I've seen you with your shirts off, how is this any different?"

I was finally getting my first mouthful of breakfast – oh _sweet Jesus_ it was good! - when Sirius Black burst into the hall with a group of giggling fifth years who were hanging on his every word. At some point during our third year at Hogwarts Sirius seemed to notice the dazzling effect he had on the female population and had been shamelessly taking advantage of it ever since.

"Lock up your daughters." I laughed as Sirius left his band of admirers and made his way towards us. This seemed to melt the tension at the table as the other three laughed at my words.

"So, Hadley. What would you say if I told you I had a proposition for you?" Sirius smiled running a hand through his dark, wavy hair. He sat across the table from me, next to James and clapped him on the back.

"I would say 'Sorry, Black. I don't make deals with the Devil.'" I answered with a smirk, whatever he wanted I knew it would all end in chaos. It always did. Chaos is what the Marauders lived and breathed for, I'd been roped into too many of their crazy schemes before to think that any good would come from them.

"Oh come on, love, you don't even know what it is yet!" I didn't say anything, just raised an eyebrow and watched him over my mug as I took a long drink. "Okay, so I know the track record isn't exactly spotless, but you don't even need to do anything!"

"Every time you come up with this stuff I always end up in detention. How will this be any different from the time with the _gnomes_ or the _kneazles_ or the _boggarts... _I could go on." I turned to see if any of the others knew what the hell Sirius was on about, going by their puzzled expressions it was clear to say than the other three had no idea what their fourth was on about.

"Well, those were unfortunate, but, like I said, you don't have to do anything. Here it is: If we can find your secret stash of Fire Whiskey, you need to let us keep half." He grinned.

No harm could come from this right? There was no way that they would ever be able to find it anyway. "What do I get from this. Say you don't find it, what's in it for me?"

"Oh, we'll find it. I'm just being a gentleman and offering you the chance to keep half." He winked knowing that he'd reeled me in. Damn.

"Okay. If you can find the Fire Whiskey in the next week, I'll let you take half. Deal." I held out my hand for Sirius to shake over the table and couldn't help the grin that formed. He was going to be _so_ pissed when he couldn't find it.

"You know, in some countries they seal deals with a kiss." Sirius offered wiggling his eyebrows.

"Well, it's a good thing we live in Britain then. Shake the hand, loverboy, it's all your getting." I chuckled rolling my eyes. This boy never gives up does he?

"Are you really willing to part with all that Fire Whiskey?" James asked, eyes wide while the others shook their heads and laughed.

"Oh god no! But there's no way he'll find it." I laughed giving Sirius a pointed look, "It's not as if he can charm Lily or Meredith into telling him where it is, they'd just laugh him off. Whoa, what's up with you?"

At the mention of Lily, James' face dropped and he went back to playing with his food and started muttering under his breath.

Remus sighed and turned to face me, "He asked Lily out again this morning. It didn't exactly go too well."

"What? Oh, _James._" I gave him a sympathetic smile, the poor bloke got rejected by Lily at least three times a week. "Okay, I think it's time for an intervention."

"What? What do you mean? What do you need to intervene in? She'll come around eventually." James reasoned. To be honest it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself rather than me.

"Look I don't want to sound harsh, but, I'm going to have to give you some tough love seeing as these three idiots have been avoiding It for so long." I turned to look at Sirius, Remus and Peter. I sighed, it couldn't be averted any longer and as much as I didn't want to be the one to point this out to the poor boy, it didn't look like anyone else was going to. "Your approach isn't working. Asking her out constantly? James, your just annoying her. Your always saying that you and Lily are 'meant-to-be' and all that, but when was the last time you had a proper conversation with her? In second year? She's not exactly the same girl she was then." I took a deep breath before continuing on in a softer tone, "I understand that you really like her, I really do, and given half the chance I'm _positive_ that Lily would really like you too. But the way your going just now, it doesn't matter how many times I put in a good word for you, she just isn't going to respond the way you want her to."

Once finished I took a breath. I was the only one. Everybody else seemed to be holding theirs to wait on James' reaction. Remus and Peter had their eyes on James, Sirius was staring straight at me with his jaw dropped and a look that roughly translated to 'I-Can't-Believe-You-Just-Did-That'.

For about a minute and a half James just sat there and blinked with his mouth slightly open. _Shit._ I shouldn't have said anything, it really wasn't any of my business. Just as I was about to apologize and explain all this James finally decided to speak up.

"Wait, you've been putting in a good word for me? To Lily?" James asked with his eyes wide and the corners of his mouth tugging slightly upwards.

I blew out a sigh of relief. "Of course I have. Lily's my best friend, but it's obvious to anyone that you at least deserve a chance. You just have to give her some time. She _will_ come around if you, I don't know, _be normal_. Talk to her, don't just bombard her with invitations to Hogsmeade or whatever. Talk to the girl about something other than your undying love for her."

"You're a really good mate Hadley, you know that?" James grinned. The other three looked completely perplexed and still couldn't manage to come out with anything.

"Yeah, I've been told many times of my brilliance." I laughed. "This one's free. I'll be charging for the next therapy session."

"No, really, that's probably the most helpful advice I've gotten, thanks." James smiled, but it didn't last as Sirius hit him over the head with a thick book he'd taken from in front of Remus. "Ow! What the hell was that for?"

"I don't know, maybe for the fact that I've been telling you the exact same thing for the last three years and you've been completely ignoring it?" Sirius told James with outrage written all over his face.

I scoffed, "Why, in the name of Merlin, would he take romantic advice from _you_?"

"Eh, why wouldn't he?" Sirius countered with his trademark smirk, "I've had _plenty_ of girlfriends."

"_Girlfriends? _That's what you call them? The girls you have a quickie with in the nearest broom closet then ignore for the rest of the week?" I snorted.

"Jealous are we Hadley?"

"Yes," I laughed sarcastically, "That's _exactly_ what it is. I'm just_ so desperate _for youto snog _me_ in an empty classroom."

There was silence for a second before we simultaneously grinned "Truce?" That was what always happened with our disagreements, they were over quicker than they began. We agreed before glancing back to James to notice that he was gone. Sirius and I both looked to see him exiting the Great Hall with his eyebrows knitted together and a small smile playing on his face whilst Lily and Meredith entered with their arms linked.

"I didn't mean it to come out harsh, did it?" I asked Remus, while I munched on a piece of toast. Remus simply shook his head as he glanced up the table. Professor McGonagall was making her way down the Gryffindor table issuing timetables and sorting out classes.

"Nah, I think he just wanted to get out of here before Lily arrived." Remus responded just as Lily and Meredith sat down with us.

"Oh, so your alive?" Lily joked, "We tried to wake you up this morning before we left for the library but you were completely dead to the world. Oh, we saw Indie earlier she was looking for you."

"Who goes to the library before any of the classes have even started?" I scrunched up my nose and shook my head before reaching for more bacon.

"How the hell can you be so small yet eat as much as you do? You've basically demolished half of the table." Sirius asked. I just pulled a face at him and continued to chew as I saw my older sister approaching from the Ravenclaw table.

"Hey, Hadley, this came in the mail for you this morning but you weren't here." Indie said as she tossed her long pale hair over her shoulder and passed me the letter.

I was about to say my thanks when Sirius cut in, "Indie, looking lovely as always." He winked.

"Not looking too bad yourself, Sirius." she smiled, before turning on her heel and walking back the way she came.

I gave Sirius a stern look, "You are _not_ going to go out with my sister." I told him before looking down to the white envelope in my hands.

* * *

**Sirius**

It was ten to nine and Professor McGonagall still hadn't made it down to their end of the table, so the group remained sat where they were. How they were a 'group' Sirius had never really managed to figured it out. He supposed it was because Hadley and Meredith were good friends with James and Remus, this meaning that Lily and Sirius were part of the group due to their friendships with the others. However, even though Lily hadn't grown to like James, Sirius had in fact grown to enjoy the company of Hadley and her friends. Plus he liked being able to tease Hadley at his whim, trying to make the girl blush or fall over herself. She never did. Hadley Wilde was the only female in Hogwarts who ignored his incessant flirting and told him like it was. He had to admit, he liked it.

Eventually Professor McGonagall arrived at the six of them to sort out their classes. She quickly cleared Sirius for Potions, Charms, Care of Magical Creatures, Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts, then handed him a copy of the exact same timetable but with James name at the top- she really did know them too well. Then Meredith, Lily, and Remus were good to go for Arithmancy, Charms, Potions, Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts. Peter was doing much the same as Sirius and James except he chose Muggle Studies and History of Magic rather than Care of Magical Creatures and Transfiguration.

"_Ahem," _Professor McGonagall cleared her throat loudly at Hadley who still had the letter she had received in her hands. Still she took no notice and continued reading the letter with a crease between her brows and a slight frown tugging at the corner of her dark pink lips. Her eyes quickly scanned the page and she ran her hands through her long wavy hair, completely oblivious to the severe looking teacher trying to get her attention. _"Ahem!"_

Sirius smirked as he watched Hadley blink twice before looking up to see a stern faced McGonagall staring at her over her glasses. "If this is an inconvenient time for you, Miss Wilde, I'd be more than willing to adapt my schedule in order to fit around yours." the Professor said sarcastically with her face as straight as always.

"No, not inconvenient at all. Sorry, professor." Hadley faltered as she tucked the letter into her a pocket in her robes.

"So, if I remember correctly it was your goal to become a Healer. Is that still the case?" Sirius watched in amusement as Hadley silently nodded at the stern looking woman. "And I believe you got the appropriate marks in your OWL's, yes? What were they again?"

"Seven O's and two E's, Professor." Hadley told her. No wonder she got such good marks, she spent the whole month before exams holed up in the library with Remus and Lily, the three of them were in there every evening after dinner and all day during the weekends while he and James had done a little bit of studying before getting bored and looking for something else to do.

"Well I see no problem with you continuing with any of the subjects you took last year, however I do recommend that if you want to get into the Healing programme you consider..." Professor McGonagall went on for another five minutes and when the bell rang they were all cleared for their classes and made their way to Potions. Hadley had eventually decided on Potions, Herbology, Transfiguration, Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts, meaning that Sirius, James, Remus and Peter would be sharing most of their classes with Hadley, Lily and Meredith. This made Sirius smirk quietly as it meant that he always had someone to go to if he couldn't be bothered to do the assigned homework.

"Hey, Hadley, who was that letter from anyway? Your dad?" Sirius heard Lily ask. It was a bit early in the year to be getting letters from home, it was only their first full day back. _Maybe that's just my screwed up perception of family though, _he thought. Since arriving at Hogwarts and being sorted into Gryffindor, Sirius had received only two letters from his parents, none of which he replied to.

Hadley, however, had always received letters from her family. Although since the death of her mother almost two years ago they had drastically declined in frequency. Which made the letter sticking out from her robes pocket a bit strange. "What- oh, no. It's from a neighbour of ours." Hadley gave a small smile but there was still a slight frown on the girls face.

"A neighbour? Hopefully not one who plans on stealing the affection of my beloved Hadley?" Sirius feigned outrage and watched as Hadley rolled her eyes, something she did a lot when she was around him. "Must I defeat him as I did Remus last night?"

"Defeat's a bit strong, mate." James grinned as he met up with them. Sirius handed him the timetable and they all continued down towards the Potions classroom. "I would say that Moony gallantly stepped aside."

"Well seeing as one, my neighbour is a fifty-three year old woman and two, I am not your _'Beloved Hadley'_, you really don't have anything to worry about." Hadley laughed as she entered the classroom. The room was set up in groups of four so when they entered Sirius, James, Remus and Peter sat at one table near the front and Hadley Lily and Meredith sat at the adjacent one.

Sirius had always like the potions classroom, not because it was his favourite subject or because Professor Slughorn was an exceptionally good teacher, it was because the room held good memories for him. It was at the beginning of his third year that Sirius had been assigned a seat next to a small, dark-haired girl who that year became the first girl that the future ladies man Sirius Black, had ever fancied. She had been in his classes before but they had never sat near each other before therefore Sirius had never really noticed her too much, although he was sure she was friends with Remus. Up until Christmas Sirius had been hypnotised by her incredible eyes, loud laugh and even her knobbly knees. It was just after he returned from a miserable visit home for the holidays that Sirius suddenly found himself as the main topic of conversation of giggling girls and catching the eye of girls not only in his year, but the year above too. However, _she_ didn't seem to notice any difference, _she_ never paid him _that _kind of attention. Initially he said no to the many girls who were forward enough to ask him out on trips to Hogsmeade as he was hooked on her, but back then he had been lacking the confidence to do anything about his feelings and eventually he said yes somehow leaving the dark-haired girl behind. By the end of their third year at Hogwarts, Sirius was no longer transfixed by her as they were now just good friends. He didn't tell anyone of his liking of the girl except James, and still to this day hadn't.

Sirius was pulled out of his thoughts when the large doors slammed shut behind a smiling Professor Slughorn.

"Okay, everyone quieten down." The potions master walked leisurely down to the his desk then turned to face the classroom full of Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. "I know that you are in sixth year now, but that does not excuse you from the rules of my classroom. Therefore you will be split into pairs and there will be two pairs to a work station." Everyone around him groaned at the thought of an arranged seating plan.

"At this first table," He said pointing to the one Sirius was sitting at, "We'll have James Potter and Meredith Harrington and across from them Peter Pettigrew and Lily Evans." Lily sighed, but only a little, she knew she'd have Meredith to talk to other than James. Slughorn sorted out the table behind them with two Hufflepuff pairs before turning to the table that Hadley was sitting at alone. "Here we will have Remus Lupin and Wesley Reynolds, then sitting here will be, Hadley Wilde and Sirius Black."

Sirius gathered up his belongings and lazily walked over to where Hadley was already sat. "Fate just seems to be throwing us together." Sirius winked towards her which earned him an eye roll from not only Hadley but Remus as well. Sitting next to Remus was Wes, a tall lanky boy with thick glasses and very pale skin who was smiling widely at Hadley.

After Professor Slughorn had sorted out the remaining two tables he went back to the front of the classroom and began a long and rambling lecture on what as expected of them in order for them to pass their NEWT exam next year. Beside Sirius, Hadley huffed and sank lower in her chair. She ever so slightly turned to him and out of the corner of her mouth said, "Looks like it's going to be third year all over again."

* * *

**Hadley**

That evening after dinner, I made my way to the Gryffindor common room after a quick stop at the library to get as much materials as I could carry to help tackle with the mountain of homework I'd already received. Just I was rounding a corner, only a few feet away from the portrait hole, I felt a slim body bang into my side resulting in my books being thrown up in the air before falling to the floor. I turned to see a worried looking Wes rubbing his elbow and already trying to retrieve all of my books.

"Oh, H-Hadley! I d-didn't even see you there. I'm sorry! Really, I'm so so s-sorry!" Wes continued to ramble and apologise profusely while picking up every book he could.

"Wes!" I had to raise my voice as he couldn't hear me over his incessant apologising. He blinked then looked up at me slowly, he was always such a nervous boy. I put a hand on his shoulder and looked straight into his eyes to make sure I had his full attention, "It's okay. It was an accident, don't worry about it. You don't need to apologise I should have been able to see over this stupid bundle of books anyway." I gave him a genuine smile before retrieving the rest of my books. "Thanks for your help, I'll see you later Wes." I smiled again to reassure him before continuing towards the Fat Lady.

"Hadley?" Wes called as I was almost at the portrait, "I-I was just wondering, I m-mean, if you need a s-study partner..."

"Oh, thanks Wes, but i'm actually just going to meet up with Remus and Meredith to do homework. Maybe some other time though." He grinned back at me as I turned to the portrait, "Gurdyroot." I said behind my stack of books and the door swung open.

* * *

For two hours I'd been sitting by the fire completing an essay for Herbology, while Remus and Meredith were filling in a complicated looking chart for Arithmancy. Finally as I rolled up my parchment and sucked on the end of my sugar quill I looked over Remus shoulder at his sheet and snorted, "_That _is exactly why hardly anybody takes Arithmancy. Tell me, do you actually have _any_ clue whatsoever as to what you're actually doing?"

"Err, well no not really." Remus smiled, "But, if you turn your head this way the chart kind of looks like a Grindylow." In sync we both tilted our heads to the right.

"Huh, so it does." I agreed. Just then the portrait hole burst open and in strolled Sirius Black with the biggest grin on his face that you've ever seen. He made his way over to us in what could only be called a _strut. _

"Hadley, love, pick a hand. Left, right or both." Sirius winked as he stood before the three of us with his hands behind his back.

"How about neither?" I asked with a smirk.

"Not an option my dear. _Choose._" If possible Sirius grin grew even wider, his eyes sparkling at the prospect of whatever he was about to reveal.

"Fine. Both" I played along to Sirius' game in hopes that it would soon be over. After a long first day I could almost hear my warm bed calling my name. Just as Sirius was about to pull out both hands James and Peter came through the portrait hole and Lily appeared at the foot of the stairs that lead to the dorms.

"Quickly, quickly, gather round you three." Just as the three of them sat down in the surrounding chairs, "Ladies and gentleman, I give you," At that moment Sirius whipped both hands around to the front revealing a bottle in each hand, "_Fire Whiskey!_"

My jaw couldn't of possibly dropped any further, "_You son of a bitch!_ Are you _serious_!" I glowered at him.

"No, darling. I'm _Sirius." _Oh god! The name pun how much more of an idiot could this boy be. "I believe this means I win half of what I just found!" Sirius teased dancing around the chairs whilst the others laughed.

"Woah, hey, wait a minute! How do I even know that they're _my _bottles. You could of gotten them from anywhere." I protested, although where else could he have gotten them? Unless he had his own stash, in which case he wouldn't even want mine.

"I found them in..." He began before I threw my hand over his mouth with my eyes wide. He raised an eyebrow in questioning.

"Well don't just go shouting out my hiding place to the whole common room!" I rolled my eyes before pulling him away from the group. "Where the _hell _did you find those?" I hissed at him.

"You know, in that room on the seventh floor. The one across from the tapestry of the dancing trolls?" He smiled cockily and waved the two full bottles in front of my face. "Please, Hadley. There aren't many hiding places in this castle that_ I _don't know about."

"Oh I swear to Merlin, I'm going to kick your arse Sirius Black!" I yelled, but he was too quick of the mark. He'd ran out of the corner we'd been standing in and was at the other side of the room.

"I'd like to see you try, short arse! C'mon, give it your best shot Bambi!" he jeered grinning wildly, before running straight out of the common room and down the halls.

I ran as fast as my long legs could carry me. I got out of the common room just in time to see his dark shape flying round the corner. "You bastard, Sirius! Those are my bottles!" I yelled just as I turned sharply at the corner a ran straight into a hard, black wall and fell flat on my arse.

Only it wasn't a wall. It was Sirius who was standing there eyes wide and the two bottles still in his hands. I looked past him to see what had caused him to halt so suddenly and found myself eye to eye with Professor McGonagall. _Detention,_ every single damn time I found myself in _detention._

"Oh so, these bottles belong to you Miss Wilde? I guess you'll be joining Mr Black here in detention."

* * *

_**A/N: Thank you so much for the very positive feedback on Chapter 1! As a new writer it was great to have so much support on my first ever piece of writing I've put online! I hope that it continues! And **__**as this is my first attempt at anything like this I would appreciate it if you would take the time to review? I need some constructive criticism!**_  



	3. La Vie est Belle

_**Chapter 3 - La Vie est Belle **_

"Sirius. No, _Sirius._ Do it properly!"

"_I am._" he moaned from the other side of the empty classroom. We were only halfway through our two-week long detention and it felt like we'd been at it forever. Whilst I was mopping the floors of the hardly ever used classroom, Sirius was pretending to be dusting the shelves. So far, cleaning a disused classroom had been the best of our detentions. Every night for the past week we had been going to Professor McGonagall and every night she gave us something different to do.

"No, you're not. Would you rather go back to sorting papers with Filch breathing down our necks?" I asked him. We both seemed to shudder simultaneously at the thought. "Anyway, this is all your fault!"

"My fault?" Sirius turned to face me and laughed. "Hadley, love, I think you'll find that those bottles belonged to _you._"

"Yeah, but who was the one running down the corridors with them for everyone- including McGonagall- to see?" I challenged him. I'd be damned if I was going to get the blame for Sirius and his idiotic schemes. I watched him as he held the duster up to his face and studied it closely, seemingly he'd lost all track of any conversation we'd been having. "Sirius? Do you even know how to dust?"

"Haven't the foggiest." He announced before turning to grin at me. I just rolled my eyes at his cluelessness and went over to take over the dusting. "Why would they even make us clean without our wands?"

"It's detention, Sirius. It's not supposed to make sense, it's supposed to be _boring_." I told him watching as he lounged lazily on a nearby chair and kicked his muddy feet up onto the desk. "_Really? _You're going to add on to the amount of cleaning I already have to do? Not that you were ever going to do any of it anyway, you've probably never even done a days work in your life, you lazy git."

The idiot just sat there and watched me with an amused smirk and a cocked eyebrow. "Oh, but I'd much rather watch you work, Hadley. You do it so well."

"Flattery will get you nowhere. At least straighten up the tables and chairs." Incredibly, Sirius huffed and stood up with an almighty sigh as if _he_ was the one doing _me_ a favour.

"Only because it's you, Hadley dear." he declared earning him yet another eye roll from me.

"Its so bloody warm in here!" I exclaimed about half an hour later. Typically, as soon as Sirius and I were given two weeks of detention, the sun began to shine down as bright as it could. Meaning that while we were stuck indoors doing mundane and monotonous tasks, everyone else was outside in the scorching sun having fun. And for this I blamed Sirius. "Do you mind if I open the windows?"

"Go for it. I am _sweltering!_" he agreed lifting the jumper he had on over his head and in doing so he managed to flash his pale and slightly muscular stomach. He tossed the jumper across the classroom and it landed at my feet as I turned to open the small windows as far as they would go. The faintest of breezes drifted through the windows doing nothing whatsoever to calm the effects of the sun which was beating down in full force.

"This is so bloody typical," I said as I pulled my long hair off of my sweating neck, tying it up into a high ponytail that flowed down my back. "This is the last time we're going to get any sun this year and I'm stuck in here with _you_."

"Don't be sore, Hadley dear, there are plenty of worse people you could be here with. Think of the positive side, you get to enjoy my dazzling wit and my devilish good looks." He winked and sent me a cocky grin.

"Ah, let's not forget your enormous ego." I laughed.

"Wait, what's that?" Sirius asked as he looked at me with an amused look on his face.

"An ego? Oh, Sirius _really_-"

"No not that, turn around, what's that on the back of you neck?" He asked with narrowed eyes and a smirk.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I lied, but it was no good, his small smirk had grown into a full blown grin.

"Hadley Wilde, _you little rebel._ Is that a tattoo?" he chuckled and walked towards me but I didn't glance up from the mop I had been swaying in the same spot for the past minute.

"Of course it's not!" I told him, but still he kept approaching. Sirius wouldn't buy my lies, he'd figured out the tell tale signs of my lying in third year. "Sirius, back off." I held out the mop to prevent him getting any closer.

He put his hands up in surrender and backed up to grab his dusting cloth, which I had now taught him how to use properly. "Does it say something embarrassing? Is that what it is? Does it declare your undying love for Peter?"

"Sirius, I don't have a tattoo!" I shouted in exasperation. I really needed to learn how to be a better liar. The fact is, I did have a tattoo. It just wasn't something I wanted to scream from the top of the Astronomy Tower and let everybody know about it. It was _personal. _

I was thankful that for once in his life Sirius seemed to have just left it alone. My thanks were wasted. We cleaned for another half an hour and I was just about finished with the mop when, for lack of a better word, he _grabbed_ me from behind. I got the fright of my life when he looped an arm around my waist to restrain me and used his other hand to move my tousled ponytail so he could have a clear view of the back of my neck.

"Stop it, Sirius!_ No!_ Let me go!" I wriggled as much as I could but he managed to keep an iron tight grip around my middle with one arm._ God, he's stronger than he looks!_

"Oh, so you _do_ have a tattoo. Well you are a wild one aren't you Hadley? Wilde by name, wild by nature! So what does it say. _Hmmm._" I continued to struggle but it was no use, "_'La vie est belle.'_ What is that, French? What does it mean?"

He was right. On the nape of my neck I had a small tattoo that read _'La vie est belle.' _in a cursive script. It wasn't the most striking of tattoos, it didn't get a lot of peoples attention, it wasn't the most daring but _I _liked it. I liked knowing that I had it there. That it was always with me. The meaning of it though was something I really did _not _want to delve into right now with anyone, let alone _Sirius __Black._

"C'mon Hadley! What does it mean?!" he asked curiously with the corners of his mouth turned up. It was then that his hold on me loosened slightly and I whipped around to face him.

"Can you never just let anything go?!" I snapped at him, his eyes widened and he slightly frowned, clearly he had not anticipated such an extreme reaction. "For once in your_ fucking_ life could you not just respect someone's privacy?! For gods _sake_ Sirius your turning seventeen next week, not bloody seven!" I let out a frustrated sigh and walked over to the other side of the room. "I wasn't aware that you had to know everything about _my_ god damn_ fucking_ life! Should I of ran it past you first? If you have to know,_ fine!_ Before she died, my Mum-" I quickly shut up though as the door to my left opened and Professor McGonagall entered the room.

"Ah, Mr Black, Miss Wilde, I see that we are finished in here?" She asked, oblivious to the tense scene she had just walked in on.

"Yeah. We're done here." I told her, not taking my eyes off of Sirius' stormy grey ones. I didn't really know who I was talking to. Whether I was telling McGonagall that we were in fact done with the cleaning, or if I was talking to Sirius, telling him I was completely _done_ with that conversation. Either way they both seemed to get the message.

"Very well, you both may go. But I will ask you one more time. Are there any more bottles hidden in the castle?" she asked in a stern and disapproving voice.

"No, professor." We both lied together. She nodded and held out both our wands in the palm of her hand. I grabbed my discarded cardigan and took my wand before swiftly heading out of the door.

"Hadley, I-" Sirius began softly and _almost_ apologetically as he made to follow me out of the door, but before he could take more than a few steps he was being called back by McGonagall.

I knew I was overreacting. I _knew_ it. I could tell by the fact that my voice had risen to what could only be described as full-on yelling and also by the look on Sirius' face as he had looked at me from the other side of the classroom. Gone were the cheeky grin and amused eyes, there he was with his mouth slightly ajar in shock and his eyes swimming in guilt.

I made my way back up to the Gryffindor common room as quickly as I could. I thanked the heavens that the common room was empty- at 8.35pm the sun was still shining down as furiously as it had been all week, meaning everyone was out enjoying it on the grounds while it lasted. Everyone that is, except Wes. I made a beeline straight for the staircase leading to the girls dormitories when I noticed him sitting with a book in the corner- watching me.

"Oh, Hi! Hadley! I thought you might n-need a study partner for when you finished your detention." He said sending me a shy and sincere smile.

"Oh, that's really nice of you Wes, but I'm not actually feeling too great. How about tomorrow?" I returned his smile, albeit rather hurriedly, before heading up the stairs.

"Y-yeah! Sounds great!" I heard him call behind me.

I entered the dorm and just as I was closing the door behind me I heard Sirius entering downstairs in the common room. I closed the door quietly and then I was alone. Alone. With nothing but the thoughts I didn't want to think and the emotions I did _not_ want to feel. Why did he have to bring it up? It was too much. I was suddenly sweating. I rushed over to the windows and threw them open as wide as they could go. It still wasn't enough. I stripped off my light t-shirt and tight jeans so I was left standing in only my underwear. It was still so over powering, crushing on my lungs. I couldn't _breathe. _I ran into the small en-suite bathroom, slamming the door shut behind me and blasted the cold tap to splash it on my heated face. Finally the tears just flowed over my eyelids and didn't stop. I turned off the tap and slid down the tiled wall. I choked on my sobs and could barely catch a breath. Eventually after an hour my hysterical crying subsided and I lay on my side on the cool tiled bathroom floor.

I fell asleep and stayed there until 11.40pm when Lily and Meredith found me passed out on the bathroom floor, wearing nothing but a pair of black knickers and a mismatched purple bra, freezing and shivering with tear stains down my cheeks and my hair sticking to my face with sweat.

* * *

**Sirius**

It was only a few weeks into their fourth year at Hogwarts when Hadley received the letter that changed her life. Sirius had found himself spending more time with the dark-haired girl and her two friends this year as she and her brown-haired mate, Meredith, had become good friends with two of _his _best friends James and Remus. While her other red-haired friend would be friendly with the him and the others whilst very vocally detesting James. Most mornings the group would eat breakfast together and that day was no different. Like always, Hadley had been throwing anything in her grasp into her mouth, it always amazed him how much the small girl could eat without as much as gaining an inch on her slim waist. As normal the owls flew in to the Great Hall in abundance and a large barn owl dropped an official looking letter in front of a laughing Hadley. She petted the owl affectionately and gave him a treat before absent-mindedly turning to open the letter. Sirius hadn't really been paying much attention, he had a fifth-year Ravenclaw giving him the eye from across the hall and was shooting her a sexy smirk when he heard the sharp intake of breath. He lazily glanced over to Hadley before coming more alert. The colour had completely drained from the young girls face and her large blue eyes were unblinking.

"Hadley, mate, is everything-" James tried to ask but he stopped mid sentence as Hadley swivelled on her seat and proceeded to vomit ferociously onto the stone floor of the Great Hall. Meredith began patting Hadley on the back as she continued to empty her stomach and sent Lily a questioning look. Lily reached for the letter before she too turned a pale and unnatural colour. She opened her mouth as if to speak but nothing came out.

"Lily, what is it?" Remus asked somewhat forcefully just as Sirius said the exact same thing in the exact same tone.

"It's, her... Mum." She began, she seemed to be at a loss for words. She glanced up and her eyes met Sirius' cool grey eyes by chance. The last word she whispered so quietly that it was a wonder that Sirius, Meredith, James, Remus, and Peter managed to catch it over Hadley's continued vomiting. "Death eaters."

So when Sirius had unintentionally pressed her for details on what was obviously such a hard topic for her he felt nothing but guilt. It was a foreign emotion but he recognised it all the same. Sirius Black wasn't one to dwell on stuff like this but when he thought back to the look of utter pain on Hadley's face as he pressed her on the meaning of her tattoo, his heart sunk into his stomach._ I really am a bastard sometimes_, he thought to himself as he made his way to breakfast the next morning. He had decided during the night that he wouldn't make Hadley more uncomfortable than she already was and that he would eat his breakfast in the kitchens with the house-elves while she ate in the Great Hall with everyone else.

It seemed however that she had the same idea as him as when Sirius stepped through the portrait of the fruit and into the kitchen he found Hadley sitting at one of the tables picking at her breakfast. She looked up and when she did Sirius kicked himself even more. She looked as if she'd had a rough night, which was not something that Hadley normally looked like. Her hair was pulled into a messy braid that hung over one shoulder and despite the small amounts of make-up she normally wore, Sirius could see small dark circles under her big eyes.

Sirius started to back out of the room but when she noticed what he was doing he heard a sigh coming from Hadley before she spoke softly but in a slightly raspy voice, as if she'd been crying. _Shit. _"You can sit down Sirius, I don't mind. Honestly."

Sirius silently went to sit across from her while the house-elves bobbed around him asking him questions he wasn't really listening to, he asked for some toast before looking back up to Hadley who was watching him. She sighed again which made Sirius snap out of it and he began apologising but before he could Hadley spoke again.

"I'm really sorry Sirius." Wait- _What?!_ Wasn't he the one who was supposed to be apologising? Granted he didn't do it often, but was she really expecting him not to after what happened? " You didn't know. I overreacted and I was a bitch... it's just... the tattoo it's-"

It was Sirius' turn to jump in, there was no way he would let her take the blame for something that was entirely his fault. He deserved her harsh words last night. "No, Hadley. You don't need to tell me. You have no need to be sorry, I was the one who pushed it. You told me not to. You had every right to get upset and yell at me like that. I get that it's personal and-" Yet again Hadley's scratchy voice cut over before he could continue.

"It's just that my family is a bit of a sore topic for me, I guess. Maybe I will tell you one day, but for now why don't we just forget that it ever happened, okay?" Hadley gave him a small smile from across the table. He knew it was a genuine smile as it reached her eyes, pale blue eyes that in some lights looked silver, and although normally her dark hair and light eyes were normally polar opposites from each other in those moments they matched perfectly as her light eyes complimented her flowing hair as it shined in even the dullest of lights. This was one of those moments and Sirius couldn't help the grin on his face as Hadley spoke again, "Truce?" Just like it had been one of their typical silly arguments.

"You bet, Bambi." Sirius said taking her outstretched hand and shook it.

"Come on, let's go find the others." Hadley said as she stood up and shook the crumbs off of her skirt. Sirius couldn't believe his luck that Hadley had forgiven him so quickly and vowed to himself to make sure that the pain filled face he'd seen last night _never_ made a reappearance. They strolled out of the kitchens and down the corridors towards the other students, "So, how many times did you practice that apology?" Hadley laughed looking up at him, she usually had to strain her neck to see his face when they walked side-by-side as he was so much taller.

"One-hundred-and-forty-eight." Sirius told her, he knew she would take it as a joke but it was actually true. He'd been awake most of then night worrying about what he would say to Hadley when he next saw her and had being going over it in his head all night and all morning.

"Impressive." she chuckled, "I mean I don't think I know anyone else who could compose such a long spiel of an apology without even using the words 'I'm Sorry'"

"Well, that's just me. One of a kind." Sirius smirked, glad that they were back to they're regular banter. They reached the entrance hall and spotted the rest of their group with they're backs to them as they headed to their first classes.

Hadley turned to Sirius and wiggled her eye brows, "Come on." she said before running up to their friends. Sirius watched as Hadley ran up behind James and jumped on James' back, wrapping her long legs around his middle while the others laughed around them. He saw both Lily and Meredith give Hadley a small look of worry before grinning as James proceeded to walk Hadley to class on his back.

Sirius' smirk stretched into a full force grin and he jogged to catch up with the group to make his way to class.

* * *

**Hadley**

The only class I had on my own, well without any of my friends, was Herbology. So I was alone with my thoughts as I trekked back up to the castle from the greenhouses in the scorching sun. This time however, I didn't really mind. I had been taken aback when I saw Sirius entering the kitchens that morning, I knew I was going to need to speak to him eventually but I didn't think it would be so soon. I didn't know how I was going to apologize, I had been a complete and utter bitch to him the other night and to be honest I realised last night when I lay on the bathroom floor that he hadn't known any better. Which made me feel like even more of a bitch for yelling at him. But after seeing him almost leave the kitchens so as to give me my space I felt the need to apologize immediately. I couldn't believe that Sirius had been so insistent in blaming himself, he really-

"Hadley!" I lost my train of thought as I heard a deep masculine voice calling from behind me and turned around to see the owner of said voice jogging to catch up with me.

"Oh, hi Adrian. How's it going?" Adrian Goldstein, a seventh-year Ravenclaw seeker who was probably what most females in Hogwarts would describe as the best looking guy in our entire school, narrowly beating out Sirius Black who was an extremely close second. He had cropped auburn hair, sparkling green eyes and tanned skin that stretched over his wide shoulders. These were aspects I was _not_ blind to. I'd only spoken to him a few times, we had one of those relationships where we would smile and say hi when we passed in the corridor and he shared a few classes with my older sisters, Indie and Savannah, but other than that we were only friendly. That didn't stop the fact that I had a little bit of a fancy towards him for the past few months.

"Yeah, I'm good. I've been calling on you for like five minutes." He shot me a smile and I swear I almost laughed at the reaction it had on me.

"Sorry, I was kind of lost in my own thoughts, I guess." I returned the smile which caused his to grow even wider. I liked that. "What's up?"

"Nothings up, I just thought that it would be nice if we got a chance to talk. We've been _friendly_ forever but we've never actually been _friends. _I don't know why though, it seems to me that we should be." He spoke as we absent-mindedly took the long way back to the castle, across the expansive grounds.

"Yeah, you're right. I don't know why either." I agreed.

Sometime later we passed by the Whomping Willow as one of it's branches swung low causing a welcomed breeze in the blazing sun. I'd taken my robes off earlier in the day due to the intense heat and stuffed them into my shoulder bag, so as we passed the tree the breeze fluttered at the bottom of my skirt causing me to walk with my hands on my thighs to keep it from being blown right up as the trees branches continued to swing. This did leave a predicament though as while we were walked the wind blew a strand of my hair out of my braid and into my face, and I had no hands to move it as it tickled my nose. I heard Adrian give a low chuckle as he reached out a large hand to tuck the stray lock behind my ear, his fingers slightly lingering as he brushed my cheek whilst taking his hand back.

"Thanks," I smiled as he nodded in return and we continued back towards the castle.

Ten minutes later we were approaching the main doors that lead to the Entrance hall. It turned out making friends with Adrian would be extremely easy. He was very laid-back and easy to get along with. Not to mention he was easy on the eye.

We were laughing at one of his terrible jokes as we walked through the doors and he put his hand on the small of my back to lead me up the main staircase. We were on the fifth floor where we would need to part as his common room was here and mine was two floors above. He reached up to my hair and the same lock of hair he had tucked back earlier had escaped again. He twirled it in his fingers smiling before tucking it back behind my ear. This time he didn't try to pass off his wanting to touch me as an accidental brush. He drew circles with his thumb on my cheekbone as the rest of his hand cupped my cheek. _Wow, this boy knows what he's doing._ The shapes he was tracing on my cheek seemed to be leaving behind some sort of hot tingling feeling wherever his thumb touched.

Now normally, I am not a blusher. I just don't blush. But in this moment I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks as Adrian's dark green eyes held onto mine. He seemed to feel the blush too as he gave out a low chuckle before he began speaking, "I was thinking, Hadley, what if-"

And just as I was about to hear _exactly_ what I had been waiting on, none other than James Potter came round the corner and upon seeing us called out "Goldstein!" in a cheery voice. Apparently James didn't notice the fact that Adrian and I were only millimetres apart or Adrian's hand sliding from my face down my arm until he let go all to quickly. All that James noticed was Adrian with whom he could speak Quidditch with.

James began babbling on about some Quidditch manoeuvre that I honestly didn't have a clue about whilst Adrian shot me humorous looks over James' shoulder. I seen a glimpse of hope as I watched Meredith turn the corner and look my way. I didn't need to even give her a hint as to what was going on, she didn't even need a look before she realised what she was seeing.

"Hey, James. I need to show you something._ Come._" Meredith swooped in and steered an utterly clueless James in the opposite direction, even managing to send me a sly wink before they rounded another corner.

I laughed rather loudly, "Well, you can't say that James Potter knows how to pick his moments."

"Ah, so this was a moment?" Adrian grinned as he looked across at me to where I had sat on the floor while James had gone _on and on._

"Oh, it was most definitely a moment." I smiled flirtatiously.

"Well I'm awfully pleased about that, Miss Wilde." he said as he held out a hand to help me up, "I've been wanting to have a _moment_ with you for a _very_ long time."

"I'm glad that I have finally complied to your wishes."

"So, do you want to go get dinner? I'm sure nobody would mind such a pretty young Gryffindor taking a seat at the Ravenclaw table." He smiled as he edged closer.

"Actually, I can't. I have detention." I cursed Sirius right there and then for getting me into such a mess that I had to miss this.

"Oh, so Hadley Wilde got into trouble eh? Maybe I'll have to spend more time with you, y'know to keep you on the straight and narrow." He said teasingly.

"Oh, it might need to be a lot of time. I'm pretty wayward." I teased him right back. I gave as good as I got.

"I'm sure I can manage." He grinned, "If not you know what they say, 'If you can't beat them, join them' I might have to stoop down to your disobedient ways."

"I don't know if you could handle it." During our back-and-forth we had been getting closer so by now we were only a few inches apart.

"I would learn." He was still smiling widely, as he spoke. "There's a Hogsmeade visit in about two weeks, is that wild enough for you?"

His mouth was only millimetres away from mine and I could feel his hot breath on my lips. I knew how I was going to play this though. I looked up into his eyes through my lashes and before he even knew what was going on I pecked him on the cheek and was walking down the corridor towards the staircase. "Sounds great!" I called back. I was almost about to turn the corner when I turned back to give him a wink. I saw him standing there with a grin spread across his face and breathing deeply.

* * *

**Sirius**

That night Sirius and Hadley had been split up for their detentions. Sirius didn't know what Hadley had been doing for her detention but he had been sent down to assist Hagrid, which Sirius viewed as more of a reward than a punishment.

Sirius arrived back at Gryffindor tower before Hadley and was sitting at the fire in his armchair with the other three Marauders. For the past ten minutes Sirius had been staring at his Transfiguration essay praying that it would finish itself.

"Moony?" Sirius asked, his friend didn't even lift his eyes from his own parchment to answer him.

"No, I'm not going to finish your essay Padfoot." He told him. Sirius sighed as we watched James' shoulders shake up and down as he quietly laughed at his friends expense.

Sirius waved his wand and watched in amusement as many pieces of parchment hit his best friend on the head.

"Padfoot make it stop!" James pleaded after five minutes, but by now Sirius was rolling in his chair with laughter.

"What the hell are you doing?" Meredith laughed as she took a seat by the fire, pulling Lily down next to her. Meredith made a sweeping motion with her wand and all the parchment slid back onto the coffee table.

"Thanks, Mer." James smiled then shot an even bigger grin at Lily, who huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. Obviously she didn't want to be near James at the moment. "Hi Lilyflower." Lily ignored him and pulled at a thread in her jumper. When was James ever going to learn, Sirius thought as he shook his head.

"Hey Mer, I heard that Adrian asked Hadley out." James noted as he bounced back from Lily's ignoring of him.

"No thanks to you," Meredith laughed, "Yeah he did, she told me before she left for detention."

"Adrian? Adrian who?" Sirius asked with his eyebrows pulled together, it was news to him. He hadn't even known Hadley was interested in anyone.

"Goldstein. What other Adrian do you know?" Remus said.

"I don't like him," Sirius stated bluntly. He saw Lily roll her eyes, "What? I don't. Never have."

"Sirius, you never like anybody that Hadley goes out with." Lily told him.

"Not my fault that the poor girl has a thing for pricks." he shrugged. "Or maybe it's just that they have a thing for her."

"Sirius, almost every guy in this school has a _thing_ for Hadley, it's your fault that half of them don't ask her out, so you really don't get a say in who she _does_ go out with." she told him.

"How is it my fault?" Sirius scoffed. How the hell could he be the reason for Hadley's dating options?

"Because they're all scared that if they go within a meter of her that you'll either beat them to a pulp or hex them into oblivion!" she seemed pleased with herself as she saw Sirius at a loss for words. "Just like you did with Nathan."

"Okay, Nathan was a cheating scum bag that never deserved Hadley in the first place!" He was annoyed now, what else was he supposed to do? Walk away? When you find out that an arse like Nathan Hargrove was hurting someone as nice as Hadley, you don't just pretend like nothing happened.

"And who does deserve her Sirius?" Lily challenged him. He heard the unspoken question in her words. _You? _He was about to fly off the handle. How dare she make assumptions about him, she barely knew him at all! Just because she was friends with one of his best friends didn't make her an expert on him.

Luckily James noticed the tell-tale signs of his best mates temper and managed to swoop in so that Sirius would stay quiet. "What did you mean that almost everyone in the school fancies Hadley? I don't."

"Yeah, you four are the only ones." Meredith spoke up obviously not wanting Lily to rile up Sirius. "Even the Slytherin's think that Hadley is _extremely_ good-looking. The only person that doesn't see it is Hadley. Which is a shame. Don't you ever wonder why Hadley doesn't have that many good _female_ friends?" The boys all shook their heads and both Meredith and Lily rolled their eyes. "They're so ridiculously jealous that they are convinced that she's some bitch who only wants to show them up. Most girls would_ kill_ to look like her."

Beside Meredith Lily nodded in agreement, "It's true, I would definitely consider mass murder for her legs."

This hit Sirius oddly. He knew that girls could be catty, hell most of the time they'd fought over him like that. But he'd always assumed that Hadley was just well, not _shy_, but maybe wasn't that keen on making new friends. It physically hurt him to think that people thought of sweet Hadley like that. Why it hurt him he didn't have a bloody clue but it did.

"Anyway, why were we even talking about that? We came down here to ask you a favour." Meredith grinned mischievously and Lily looked a bit excited.

Meredith was just about to open her mouth when Hadley strolled through the portrait-hole and she quickly snapped her jaw shut. Hadley approached them with a smile on her face, "Hey guys, what's going on?" Nobody in the group answered, all six of them- Sirius, James, Remus, Peter, Lily and Meredith- just sat there studying Hadley with the new information they had.

Sirius watched as Hadley's eyes moved to every single one of them with her eyebrows pulled together in confusion and she ran a hand through her long dark hair, after a minute or two she shook her head and turned to find Wes in the corner of the room. "Hey, Wes!" she called over. The pale, curly headed boy looked up at and grinned as he realised who it was speaking. "It's only ten-to-eight do you still want to go to the library?"

"Yeah! O-okay I'll just go grab my homework!" Wes got up and shot up the stairs to the dorm that he shared with the Marauders.

Hadley turned back to the group and pulled her eyebrows back together again. It was James who finally broke the silence, "Hadley, you're really pretty. Y'know that?" James smiled.

Hadley just laughed and rolled her eyes, "Whatever Marauder business you're trying to butter me up for, I won't do it. I'm still doing my time for the last one." She sent Sirius a mock glare before laughing again and telling an excited looking Wes, who had just bounded down the stairs, that she would be back in a minute. She jogged up the stairs and Sirius saw that just as she reached the top step she tripped, landing flat on her side. He couldn't help but laugh. It was so typically Hadley.

"I saw that Bambi!" He called up at her.

"Shit." The group all laughed as Hadley's voice carried down the stairs.

Sirius still couldn't quite believe Hadley's reaction to James' words. Was she just being modest or did she honestly _not_ believe it?

Hadley came down the stairs almost thirty seconds later carrying a pile of books taller than her torso. "Anyone up for the library?" she asked as she passed on her way to the portrait.

Sirius saw Remus look as if he was about to join them but Meredith quickly pressed her fist down into his shoe causing him to bite back his words.

"Nope! We'll see you when you get back!" Meredith called from her seat on the carpet. Hadley shrugged and followed Wes out of the common room.

"Meredith you didn't have to do it so hard." Remus said rubbing his foot.

"Well, we needed you all here. We have to ask you something, it's why we came over in the first place." Meredith went on, "You know it's Hadley's birthday in about two weeks right?"

"Hey! Wait a minute!" Sirius called from his chair, "It's my birthday in four days, don't you think we should be discussing my birthday? I'm coming of age!" He said dramatically.

"That's James, Remus and Peter's domain. We are sorting Hadley's and if you hadn't already realised we're _big _on birthdays." Meredith laughed.

"Okay, so why are you asking us?" Peter asked from his seat in the corner.

"You see, we need a bit of a hand." Lily began, "Here's what we're planning..."

* * *

_**A/N: Thank you so much for the very positive feedback on the first two chapters! As a new writer it was great to have so much support on my first ever piece of writing I've put online! I hope that it continues! And as this is my first attempt at anything like this I would appreciate it if you would take the time to review? I need some constructive criticism! Thankyouuuu!**_


	4. Veritaserum

_**A/N: This chapter is slightly different than the previous ones. This is where I start to get into what's actually going on with our lovely girl Hadley! I've been waiting to do this since chapter 1 but had to hold myself back! Plus I have links to the pictures of all the characters on my profile if you care to look! If you're feeling lazy and can't be bothered looking over to my page I'll put links to at least Hadley and Sirius at the bottom of this page! Now, on with the reading!**_

* * *

**_Chapter 4 –_ _Veritaserum._**

He's told them. That bastard has told them_ everything. _I'm going to fucking kill him. How the hell could he do this to me?

I thought that everything was fine. That my outburst during our detention the previous night had been put behind us. Obviously not. The next night we'd been split up for our detention and afterwards I was practically _dancing_ down the halls, grinning like an idiot because I was so bloody deliriously happy. Why wouldn't I be? I only had a few days of detention left, I was coming of age in a week and a bit, I was actually understanding my classes for a change and _finally_ Adrian had asked me out. Everything else was just taking a back seat because I was completely and idiotically happy about how the first two weeks of the school year had turned out.

When I entered the common room they were all sitting by the fire, Sirius, Lily, Meredith, James, Remus and Peter, but as soon as I entered all conversation came to a halt.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" I smiled, but they didn't answer. All six of them sat there staring at me. Not a word was spoken, they just studied me in silence. Eventually James broke the silence by coming out with some nonsense about me being 'really pretty'. _What the hell?_ James Potter has treated me like an annoying- but loveable- younger sister for the past three years and all of a sudden he's realised that I'm actually female? The only times he'd ever been _that_ friendly was whenever he'd try to cheer me up. Something was wrong here.

I shrugged it off and headed out to the library with Wes. I was halfway there when I came to the only logical conclusion. He told them. Sirius _fucking_ Black had told them about my god damn melt down the other night. After he'd _promised_ to let it go. That _son of a bitch._

By now Lily and Meredith have probably put two and two together and informed the four boys of the panic attack I took that same night and the state I'd been in when they found me. Then they would proceed to tell them of all the other panic attacks I'd been taking since fourth year and 'how bad they seemed to be getting lately.'

So after a rather unsuccessful study session in the library, I excused myself from Wes and made my way back to the seventh floor. I didn't want to go back to Gryffindor Tower. I didn't want to deal with Lily's probing questions and Meredith's worried looks. I reached my destination and walked back and forth three times at the blank stretch of stone wall.

_I need somewhere to stay tonight. I need somewhere to stay tonight. I need somewhere to stay tonight._

A tall door appeared and I entered to find a large four-poster bed similar to the one in my dorm, a pile of clothes, that on further inspection turned out to be a set of school clothes for the next day, and there was also a door that lead into a spacious bathroom which held everything I could ever possibly need.

I dropped my bag and books before sprawling across the comfortable bed with a sigh. I'd deal with it all tomorrow, but for now all I wanted was to be alone without anybody questioning if I were sane or not.

The next morning I bathed and got ready very quickly, I had to face this sooner or later. As I walked down to the Great Hall on that Tuesday morning I felt all of the anger I held towards Sirius from the night before flooding back. Without even realising what I was doing I was storming into the Great Hall and towards the Gryffindor table where I saw the group sat. All but one.

"Hadley! There you are, you never came back to the dorm last night and-" Lily began with worry filling her large emerald eyes but I was too pissed to really care.

"I'm fine Lily." I snapped, perhaps a bit too harshly as she looked a little shocked at my sharpness. I turned to James, Remus and Peter, "Where's Sirius?" I asked.

Peter looks like he wants to hide under the table but James and Remus both pulled the same face, eyebrow knitted together and looking confused, "I don't know, last time I seen him he was heading somewhere with some fifth year Hufflepuff. Hadley what-" James said but I didn't hear any more as I turn on my heel and make my way back out.

I climbed to the second floor and took the second corridor to the right, where I knew there were a few broom closets. I found him on the first try.

I threw open the door forcefully to reveal a bare-chested Sirius and a petite, blonde Hufflepuff girl I don't know the name of. Her hands digging into his bare chest and his roaming about her torso, their mouths very much glued together.

"I need to talk to you." I seethed at him. They quickly pulled apart and turned to face me. The girl turning bright red and Sirius just looking rather agitated.

"We're a bit busy Hadley, dear, so if you don't mind." He nodded his head towards the door, asking me to leave and close it behind me, but I ignored his request and turned to the girl.

"Get. The. Fuck. Out. _Now_." I growled. She didn't need to be told twice. She gathered up her discarded robes and began buttoning up the top of her blouse as she fled past me.

"Hadley, what the hell is your problem?" Sirius asked as he pulled on his shirt and tie, "Y'know, if you wanted to be the one in here-" he joked, but I was not having it.

"My problem? What the hell is _your_ problem? How could you do that to me? I thought we were supposed to be _friends._ You said you'd forget about it, that you wouldn't say anything!" I yelled hysterically, jabbing my index finger into his chest.

"What? Hadley we are friends. What are-" he said sounding rather confused, he reached out to grab my shoulders but I quickly wriggled out of his grip, pushing him away as forcefully as I could, but the tall, muscular boy barely moved.

"You've bloody went and told Lily and Meredith about Sunday! And most likely the rest of your mates as well!" I cried, "Do you know what's going to happen? Lily will get all worried and tell Indie, Savannah and Kendall, then they'll tell Darcy and my bloody dad! I _told_ you Sirius, I bloody well told you that I wasn't having the best time with my family right now and you fucking go and do _this_?"

"Whoa, whoa. Hadley, calm down." He tried to speak softly but his eyebrows were pulled together and there was also a slight frown on his lips. "I didn't tell anyone _anything._ I promise, Hadley. I said I wouldn't tell anyone and I haven't, I _swear._"

"Don't touch me!" I shouted as he reached out yet again, "Then why the hell don't I believe you?! Huh? When I walked in last night you all went completely silent! Just sitting there staring at me, you don't think I realised what was going on?!"

Sirius looked down at me incredulously, his mouth agape. "Hadley, I didn't tell them anything for Merlin's sake! We were talking about your bloody birthday before you came in that's why we all shut up. Do you honestly think that I'd..." Sirius continued on but I wasn't really taking any notice of the words that were freely flowing from his mouth.

I stood there looking up into his stormy grey eyes when it happened. I can't really explain it, some sort of a dark matter _lifted_ from me and all of a sudden my vision was clear. A dark cloud I didn't even realise had been clouding me, my head, my vision, my words and judgement, just suddenly _lifted. _I felt a huge release in pressure and thought of the words I'd been saying._ Had they really come from my own mouth?_

I uncreased my angry eyes and they widened of their own accord, my mouth hanging open as I covered it with my hand. What the hell had I been thinking? What had possessed me to think that Sirius could ever do such a thing. Sure, he could be a bastard some of the time and he teased me a lot, but _never_ would he ever do something so _hurtful._

"Sirius, I... uh... _I'm so_ _sorry._.. I don't know what... uh... oh god." I stumbled over my words, still a little in shock about the fact that they had actually come from _my_ mouth.

"Are you alright Bambi?" he asked, he looked so worried but also completely bewildered at my complete change in tone. He once again reached out to my shoulder but this time instead of pushing him away I cringed and took a couple of steps back, tripping over my feet.

"I'm really sorry, Sirius." I said quietly with a frown before turning away and trying to make a quick exit. I hurried down the corridor towards he stairs, trying my best not to think of what had just happened. Why had I thought that he could ever do such a thing?

I reached the top of the stairs when a large hand reached out and took my arm, making me jump about a foot into the air. I let out a strangled kind of cry that made the hand automatically pull back. I turned to see Sirius had followed after me, now standing with his hands up, palms facing forwards.

"Whoa, Hadley, it's _me._ Are you sure your okay?" He looked me over, starting by studying my face then glancing down the rest of me while I looked down at the floor, "I think you should go and see Madam Pomfrey. Do you want me to come with you?" He looked at me in such a delicate and worrisome way that only made me feel even worse about the venomous words that had came from my mouth. It was so different to our usual relationship of banter and taking the utter piss that I knew that I had him really worried.

"No, I'll be fine. I don't really know what came over me." I faked a laugh, trying to get back to our usual routine, but it was so empty and hollow that I didn't even think for a second that Sirius had bought it. It must have been painfully obvious that I wanted to avoid mentioning what had happened as Sirius put on a smile and draped an arm of my shoulder as we walked towards our Transfiguration, the bell had gone about two minutes ago.

"Ah, Hadley. These mood swings of yours are really keeping me on my toes." He laughed before going on to talk about an elaborate prank he was planning with the other Marauders. He tried to get back into our usual routine of witty comments and sly remarks and I couldn't be more grateful. One thing I loved about Sirius Black was that he was a loyal friend, and whilst I knew that he wouldn't forget about this forever and would bring it up again shortly, for now he was going along with my wishes and pretending it had never happened. Something I seemed to be making him do a lot lately.

Sirius provided most of the conversation on the was to class and barely needed a nod from me to continue- another thing I was grateful for. It gave me time to think and sort through the complete and utter mess that was my head. The same thoughts running through my head over and over and over.

_What is wrong with me? What's happening to me?_

* * *

A couple of days later I awoke in the dorm, sweating and panting into my pillows. My dreams had been plagued with dark shapes and an emptiness that had me jerking awake at _6.45am_. Far too early for me.

For the past few days I had been putting up a front, pretending that everything was normal. Sirius obviously knew that I wasn't one hundred percent okay, but now even Lily and Meredith seemed to be seeing through the cracks in my mask.

"Hadley are you awake?" Lily whispered from the bed beside mine.

"Yes," I spoke softly, so as not to wake our other dorm mates. Two seconds later, Lily pulled back the curtains on my four-poster bed and stood there for a second looking down at me in her pyjamas. She gave me a sympathetic look and sighed before reaching out for the corner of the covers and slipping underneath them. She laid her head down on the left side of the pillow, her dark red hair splaying outwards.

"Your my best friend Hadley, I know when your not alright." We didn't look at each other while she spoke, we both looked up to the ceiling as we lay there side by side. "After we found you on Sunday night," she faltered slightly at my intake of breath, but still continued, "I.. I can't help but worry about you Hadley. These panic attacks have been getting more and more frequent and I just... I don't like seeing you like that. I know things aren't great at home but have you told any of your sisters or wrote to your brother?"

"I... I can't Lil'." I whispered softly.

Just then Meredith appeared at the other side of my bed, "Lily's right, Hadley." she too sighed before giving me a small sad smile, "Mind if I join you?" I answered by lifting the sheets to allow her in and the three of us lay sharing one pillow and looking upwards as if we could see out into the morning sky, like we did when we were younger.

I had flashes of us three laying like this at eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. Talking about everything and anything that sprung to mind. Although, with a wizarding war raging on outside the protected walls of the castle it was hard for these talks not to grow more serious as we got older.

After about ten minutes of silence we all sat up when Meredith said, "We should probably get dressed and go wish Sirius a Happy Birthday."

* * *

**Sirius**

The day after his birthday, Sirius was sitting at the Gryffindor table with the whole group. Everyone was laughing at an outrageous story being told by James, with Remus adding on occasionally. Sirius however wasn't joining in. Again he found himself subtly watching Hadley out of the corner of his eye. She had been putting up some sort of front for the past few days and nobody but him seemed to notice that anything was different. It was the small things that gave her away, things that anyone else would overlook. The fact the smile she had put on at James' story didn't reach her piercing pale blue eyes, the way her eyebrows sometimes pulled together when she thought nobody was looking her way.

Hadley's biggest tell, however, was none of these things. During his third year at Hogwarts, Sirius thought of himself as a sort-of expert on Hadley Wilde, not that he ever shared his knowledge with anyone. He had realised then that if Hadley was ever _really_ upset or troubled she would sit with one leg pulled up so that she was hugging it to her chest and rested her chin upon her knee.

It was upon seeing this sitting position that Sirius decided he could no longer pretend that there wasn't anything going on with Hadley. He knew that if he approached the subject with her she would completely deny that anything was wrong. So, he devised a plan in his head and no matter how guilty he felt about it, he needed answers. He was particularly grateful for Remus' birthday gift at that moment.

That morning while Remus, Lily and Meredith went off to Arithmancy and Peter went to Muggle Studies, Sirius, James and Hadley had free periods, a perk that they had been greatly enjoying since starting their sixth year. James though had been spending every single free period he had on the Quidditch pitch practising as much as possible for the upcoming season. So when James took off to fetch his broom it was only Hadley and Sirius left at the table.

"What are you going to do with your spare time then?" Sirius asked her as she munched on a slice of toast.

"I'm probably just going to go outside. I haven't really had a chance to enjoy the last of the summer sun since we've been in detention for the past two weeks. The Prophet said that today was probably going to be the last day so..." Hadley said, Sirius could tell that the dark haired girl was trying to make him think that he had no reason to worry. He didn't buy it.

"I might join you." He told her with a smile, Hadley smiled politely back before going back to playing with the plate of food in front of her. Normally she would of demolished such a plate in two minutes flat. "Hey, I didn't show you what Remus got me for my birthday did I?"

When Hadley shook her head, Sirius reached into the pocket of his robes and pulled out a small bottle that contained a clear liquid that looked like water. "What is it?" she asked, _Ah_, Sirius thought, _she's intrigued._

"This, my dear Hadley, is_ Veritaserum._" he watched with a smirk on his face as he saw Hadley's mouth drop and her eyes widen. "Yes, really." He answered before she'd even asked. Sirius was surprised, however, when he watched Hadley's eyes actually _light up,_ it was the first time he'd seen any genuine excitement on her face and in her eyes in the past week.

"Sirius?" she asked with a sly smile, "Do you want to try it?" Sirius had been expecting to have to talk Hadley into doing something so insubordinate. Veritaserum was frowned upon in the wizarding world and was most definitely banned in Hogwarts. So when Sirius saw how eager Hadley was, he was slightly taken aback. When he didn't say anything, Hadley took it upon herself to talk him into going along with it. She jumped around to the other side of the table to sit beside Sirius and poked him in the ribs a few times, "Come _on_ Sirius! Let's just try it, what harm could it do?"

"Okay, but not here. Let's go out onto the grounds first." He agreed. He was also completely baffled, _why was Hadley so desperate to try the potion?_

They walked for five minutes before they reached Sirius' favourite tree by the lake. Sirius sat down in the shade while Hadley dropped her bag down beside him before dropping down herself.

"Are you ready?" she asked, the same sly grin still etched on her face. Yes he was glad that there was genuine happiness on the girls face but he still couldn't help but be apprehensive at her eager attitude.

"Wait- Hadley, why do you want to do this? No offence but I thought that you of all people would want to keep a few things to yourself. Why?" he asked as he swept his hair out of his face.

"Does it really matter, Sirius?" she asked, but there was no hint of the smile that had been there previously. Hadley looked down at the grass as she absent mindedly picked a few glades.

"Yes." he said firmly.

For a moment she didn't speak and all he could hear was the swooshing of the Whomping Willow and the chirping of some birds. After a few minutes Hadley sighed, "I have a habit of hiding from myself. I push things away from my mind so I don't have to think about them. I've gotten so good at it that... that I do it sometimes without realising. Half of the time I don't even know what the hell is going on inside my own head and it worries me Sirius. I want to know what I'm thinking."

Sirius had no words. He didn't know what to say to her so he simply took a swig of the clear liquid before holding the bottle towards Hadley. She took it with a small grateful smile before taking a drink herself.

For minute they just sat there, then Sirius saw it. Hadley's face fell. It completely drained of any happiness that had previously been there. Her smile fell into a straight line, her eyes stopped dancing in the sun and lost their 'Hadley sparkle'. Hadley blinked at him, now looking dejected and helpless.

"Hadley, how do you feel?" he asked apprehensively.

"I... I feel nothing." she replied, and whilst it was definitely her voice, Sirius could hardly believe it. It was completely void of any emotion, maybe just a hint of trepidation. Sirius watched, his mouth ajar, as Hadley lay on her back underneath the tree. "I really do feel nothing right now. Not happy, not sad, not angry, just... empty"

"Hadley, don't joke about this kind of stuff. Are you okay?" He asked pressingly. He knew there was no way she was joking though, she had no other choice but to tell the truth.

"No, I... I'm not okay Sirius. I'm pretty messed up." she spoke quietly, "Do you ever feel like you don't belong? Like no matter how hard you try, you just don't fit in? That you're just... different?"

Sirius frowned but he had to tell her the truth, he thought about his family, what he'd felt when living with them for sixteen years of his life. She'd basically just described those years. "Yes, I do." He kept it short. Whilst he knew her words described _him_ perfectly, he didn't understand why Hadley would feel like that. The girl who was constantly laughing, constantly loved, constantly being admired, the girl who had the small group of friends who would do anything for her. And whilst he had the latter, he couldn't comprehend how someone who had all of that could feel that way. "Does this have something to do with your family?" he probed. He was trying to keep his side of the conversation to the minimum, he wanted to hear what _she_ was thinking.

She sighed, but continued on anyway. "Mostly, yes. I just don't seem to fit in all that much with them. I get along well with Darcy and sometimes Seth. But I know that if it came down to it, he'd side with Savannah, Indie and Kendall. All five of my siblings are or were in Ravenclaw, they pride themselves on that because my mother was one. My dad, he was in Slytherin, he just sees them as perfect because they remind him so much of my mum," Sirius looked at Hadley as she spoke softly, he hadn't heard her talk about her mother since she'd died, "they all have her hair and her eyes. I may have her eyes but my father doesn't see any of her in me. Then after she died and it all started, he just... he never looked at me in the same way again."

"What started? The war?" Sirius felt tremendously guilty for probing into what was something Hadley never really wanted to discuss, but he couldn't help but want to know everything there was to know about Hadley Wilde.

"No, not the war. I've been having these moments for the past two years. I can't figure them out, I don't understand them. I feel like there are two parts of my personality. One is the Hadley that walks these halls, normal, ordinary. Then the other part that's completely fucked up. I've been finding it hard to control the other part lately." Sirius thought back to the night in detention and the time she found him in the broom closet, "Sometimes I find words I don't really believe spewing out of my mouth and I can't help it. Other times, I just find myself _not_ caring about anything, sometimes even the people I think I love the most." Sirius most definitely felt that he was out of his depth here. He sat in silence hoping that Hadley just wanted him to listen. "Then all of a sudden I'm back to normal. Or maybe I _was_ being my normal self and I'm just reverting back to hiding from myself."

"I don't believe that." Sirius said firmly, he had to try and get through to her as much as he possibly could. He knew that Hadley was a bit more complex than the other girls at Hogwarts, but he didn't understand how Hadley could think of herself that way when everyone else saw her as the polar opposite. There was a lot of things about Hadley Wilde that Sirius didn't understand. "Hadley, you are _not_ that person. No, _look_ at me. What everyone else sees in you, is the complete opposite as to how you see yourself. We see the girl who can scoff down the entire breakfast table in under five minutes, we see the girl with the loudest most infectious laugh, we see the girl who can barely walk five steps without tripping over her own feet, we see the beautiful-"

"Don't say that." She moaned, Sirius searched Hadley's face and saw nothing but pain and anguish. It deeply saddened him to know that Hadley couldn't see the great qualities that everyone else did. That _he_ did. "I hate that word, _beautiful._" she scoffed, "People tell me that I'm beautiful, but whenever they do I don't think I've ever felt as ugly. People say that they love me or that they care about me, but I can't help but feel like the biggest fraud out. They only say that because they don't see the real me. Nobody does. Not until now."

Sirius watched as a small tear slid down Hadley's smooth cheek. It was heart-breaking to see Hadley like this and Sirius had no idea why it hurt him or what he should do. There was a million things he wanted to do, a million more things he wanted to say, but none of them really seemed to translate into words. He settled for reaching out to Hadley, and ignored her when she tried to cringe away. He leaned his back against the thick trunk of the tree and he brought Hadley up so that she was leaning up against him with her head on his chest. She cried softly for a while with Sirius gently smoothing down and running his fingers through her dark tousled hair and resting his chin atop her head. If anyone looked at them at this moment they would of looked like a couple in-love, but Sirius didn't care at all. All he wanted was to comfort his broken friend who was sobbing quietly into his chest. "They say that Life is beautiful, Sirius. Sometimes I just don't see it."

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Hadley asked him a question, "Sirius, have you ever been in love?"

He was slightly alarmed that maybe Hadley had picked up on something, but managed to keep his cool. Sirius knew he'd have no choice but to tell her the truth, but surely he didn't have to tell her the full truth? He thought back to the thirteen year old Hadley from Potions class then answered, "Yes, Yes I have. Once."

"I didn't take you as the type." Hadley chuckled softly, obviously trying to get back into the familiar territory of teasing and joking but it didn't last. Sirius was grateful that Hadley didn't push his admission any further. "I don't think I've ever been in love. I mean I love Lily and Meredith, I really do. I've even grown to love James, Remus, you and even Peter whose so quiet all the time. But, that's different. I've never been _in_ love. I don't think I can. Last year when I was with Nathan," Sirius tensed a little, he'd always bloody hated the cheating prick, "I wanted to be in love with him. I really did, but I just couldn't. I tried so hard to be in love with him but it's not supposed to be like that. Do you know what he said when he dumped me after five months? He said I was 'emotionally damaged'" Sirius had to stop himself from physically shivering as Hadley let out a hollow laugh, "He couldn't of got it more right. He knew it even if I didn't."

Hadley turned where she was sitting so that her face was no longer buried in Sirius' shoulder, she was still leaning against his side though as they stared out across the lake where every so often the Giant Squid would reach out a lazy tentacle. "You were so upset after he'd broken up with you, but. And why are you going out with Adrian then?"

"I was sad because I knew I was supposed to be. I tried to feel it but I just didn't. So, I put it on. As for Adrian," Hadley sighed and there was a tiny tug at the corner of her lips, "I don't really know. How am I supposed to feel love if I don't try looking for it? I fancied him before the summer and I just thought I'd give it a go. If it works, it works. If not, too bad."

The Prophet had been right, it was the last day of the sun. As they'd been sitting by the lake clouds had been sweeping the sky and a small wind was starting to pick up. Hadley shivered slightly before reaching into her bag and pulling out a black, leather biker jacket. She stood up and shrugged the jacket on, before pushing up the too long sleeves. Hadley caught Sirius admiring the jacket and gave him a small smile. "It was my mum's. She used to wear it all the time when I was younger and I'd always loved it. After she died she left it to me." Hadley glanced at her watch and frowned, "Charms starts in five minutes. Think we'll make it?"

"If we got a ride off of a Hippogriff maybe." Sirius joke as he too stood up. He was beginning to feel the Veritaserum wearing off and was thankful that not too many of his secrets had come bursting out. "Are the effects wearing off for you yet?"

"No, not quite yet. I must have taken a bigger swig than I thought." she said as they hiked up towards the castle. They were almost at the entrance when Hadley stopped Sirius and hugged him. She had to reach up on her tiptoes in able to wrap her arms round his neck and rest her head into his shoulder. "Thank you, Sirius. I really needed that. I needed to figure out what was going on in my head, even though it wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear, I had to find out. You're a really good friend, Sirius Black."

Friend. It didn't feel like enough. After all he'd figured out about Hadley Wilde in the past two weeks, _friend_ seemed like too little. He shook this feeling off though and gave the short girl a pat on the back. "My pleasure, Hadley dear. Now if you ever wanted to thank me-" he began with a smirk before Hadley hit him across the arm. "Ow!"

"So bloody typical. Ruining such a nice moment." she laughed as they walked towards Charms.

* * *

It was exactly a week after his birthday and a day before Hadley's birthday that Sirius found himself sitting in the common room trying to write an essay for Care of Magical Creatures. James had fallen asleep with his book across his face, Peter was guzzling enormous amounts of Honeydukes merchandise, Remus was sitting with Lily, Wes and Hadley at a table across the room, all four of them with their heads down working and Meredith was frowning at the Arithmancy chart sitting in front of her by the fire next to James.

After the day by the lake with the Veritaserum, Hadley seemed, for some strange reason, a lot better than she had for the past two weeks. Despite all of the information that she learned after the wall in her mind had been broken down by the potion, Hadley seemed to be taking it rather well. Sirius assumed that this was because she preferred to know the extent of the thoughts running through her head rather than be oblivious.

But she'd said it herself she was having 'dark moments', which meant it was only a matter of time before there was another one. And whilst he didn't really understand entirely what was going on, Sirius felt some sort or twisted duty to be there when it happened. As he was the only one who knew what was happening with Hadley, he was the only one who could help. But how could he help?

These were the thoughts that distracted him from the essay he should have been completing. That and the image of Hadley when they'd walked into the Charms class a few minutes late that day. Even the slightest thought of it was enough to crack Sirius up.

They'd entered the classroom five minutes late to see that everyone was sitting listening to a rambling Professor Flitwick, Sirius tried his best to slip them in unnoticed but had no such luck.

"And where have you two been? Why are you late, Miss Wilde, Mr Black?" he asked from the front of the class.

"We were out by the lake trying some Ve-" The potion obviously hadn't worn off from Hadley yet and she had felt compelled to tell the professor exactly what they had been doing. Why would definitely land the two of them back in detention for another month. Sirius clamped a hand over Hadley's mouth before she could say any more to the confused looking man.

"Uh, sorry professor. Lost track of time. It won't happen again." He headed for his seat as did a blinking Hadley.

"Is this true Miss Wilde?" he asked skeptically.

"Yes, professor." Hadley told him. Technically they had lost track of time, so it wasn't a lie. When the professor turned back to continue his lecture Sirius grinned over at Hadley as she shook her head in amazement that they had almost gotten caught out. Sirius had been laughing about it ever since.

Sitting by the fire, he eventually gave up on his essay and just sat pondering the events of the past few weeks. It was shaping up to be one hell of a year at Hogwarts.

Eventually everyone started drifting upstairs to bed. When Hadley made her way upstairs, tripping at the second step as usual, she swept up her hair into messy bun, unknowingly giving Sirius a quick glance at the tattoo on the back of her neck before she was out of sight.

Once again Sirius' thoughts went back to the night he'd first noticed the small cursive letters. He was still just as intrigued as he was then and silently cursed himself for not asking her what it meant while she was taking the Veritaserum. Then he remembered.

"Hey Meredith," he called out, just as she was packing up her school things by his side. "You went on holiday to France a couple of times with your parents, right? Do you speak French?" he asked.

"Mais oui Sirius, je le fais." she said seamlessly. "Why do you ask?"

He didn't know what she'd said but he took it as an obvious 'Yes' anyway. "Do you think if I asked you something you could tell me what it means in English?"

"Yeah, most likely. What is it?" she asked.

"I don't know how to pronounce it properly. Here, i'll write it down." He grabbed a scrap piece of parchment before scribbling the letters down.

"La vie est belle?" she asked. He nodded and she told him what it meant it in English. He thanked her before walking up the stairs to the dorm. He recalled a few words Hadley had said the other week.

_'_**Life is beautiful**_, Sirius. Sometimes I just don't see it.'_

* * *

_**A/N: Thank you so much for the very positive feedback on the first three chapters! As a new writer it was great to have so much support on my first ever piece of writing I've put online! I hope that it continues! And as this is my first attempt at anything like this I would appreciate it if you would take the time to review? I need some constructive criticism! Thankyouuuu!**_

_**Got any questions? PM me or leave it in a review and i'll get straight back to you!  
**_

_**Also here are the links I promised at the start of the chapter! All of the other characters (Including Hadley's sisters!) are in my profile!**_

_**TAKE OUT THE SPACES!  
**_

_**Hadley - : / / i1064 . photobucket albums / u376 / 13taylorfan1 / f3614ba9 . jpg  
**_

_**Sirius - : / / i1064 . photobucket albums / u376 / 13taylorfan1 / ac6e60f1 . jpg  
**_

_**Also I have been putting up a lot of stuff to do with the characters on my Polyvore (I'm addicted!) so if you want to check it out here is the link : **_

_** : / / taylorfan13 .polyvore **_


	5. Birthday

_**Chapter 5 - A Reckless-Piss-Taking-Devilishly-Good-Looking Friend.**_

"Do you think they're awake?"

"Yes Peter. They're eyes are closed, Lily's snoring and none of them are moving. They're clearly wide awake."

"Lower your voice, Sirius. I think this is a bad idea, Lily is going to go mental when she sees you James."

"Calm down Moony! We do this every year."

The sound of whispering and stifled laughter was slowly pulling me out of my dreams. Just as I was almost reaching complete consciousness the mattress creaked underneath me and the sudden unbalanced weight caused not only me, but Lily and Meredith too to sink towards it.

My eyes flew open to reveal four idiot marauders at the foot of my bed, although only James was actually on top of the bed, stretched out and grinning. The others were slouching lazily against the two bottom posts.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" James, Sirius, Remus and Peter called out when they saw my opened eyes.

"Thanks guys, I-"

"JAMES POTTER! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK-" Lily began yelling as she too lifted her head from my pillow and observed the grinning boy. Too loud for this early hour.

"Shhhh, relax Lil', please. They come up every year. Happy birthday Hadley." Meredith yawned before giving me a one armed hug and a tired grin.

"Yeah well normally they at least have the decency to wait until we're awake..." Lily grumbled to herself, before shaking it off and turning to me. "Happy birthday Hadley."

"Thanks guys." I chuckled softly before yawning and returning to the curled up position I had previously been sleeping in.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Meredith demanded just as my head hit the soft pillow.

"I take it that 'going back to sleep' would be the wrong answer?" I said rubbing my tired eyes.

"We have a routine to stick to here Wilde." Lily laughed, "Up and at 'em!"

One of the many things that bonded Lily and Meredith together was there shared love of birthdays. Not just they're own birthdays, but everyone else's as well. Every year they outdid themselves with whatever crazy plans they came up with for each others birthday, then when it came to my birthday they both almost burst with excitement as they got to pull together which always resulted in me having an unforgettable day. Mostly all of my birthdays started the same. The night before Lily and Meredith would both sleep in my bed, which had been a lot easier when were were eleven or twelve. We would wake up the next morning and open whatever cards and presents had arrived that morning before going down to breakfast then whatever plans the two had come up with would take up the rest of the day.

This was only the third year that had included the Marauders, since we had become friends at the end of third year they had been coming up to say Happy Birthday whenever one of us had a birthday, as we did with them. Not that they ever explained to us how they actually managed to get up the stairs and into our dorm in the first place. Normally any male that tried to ascend into the female wing of Gryffindor tower would quickly be sliding back down to the foot of the staircase.

"Here you go Hadley, this was all lying at the foot of your bed." Remus smiled apologetically as he handed over a small bundle of envelopes and brown packages.

I sighed realising I was not getting any more sleep, birthdays had never really been that big of a deal to me. Although maybe I could make an exception for this one. I was now seventeen In the eyes of the wizarding world I was officially and adult. I sat up and reached for my wand. It didn't_ feel _any different. Should it? I twirled the twelve and a quarter inch alder wood wand in my fingers before pointing it at James' head with a mischievous smirk on my face.

"No. Oh no. Don't even think about it. Sirius done the exact same thing last week. I like my hair the way it is thank you very much." James laughed as did a grinning Sirius standing behind him.

"Well at least someone does." Lily muttered under her breath so only Meredith and I could hear. "Come on Hadley, open them up."

Firstly I opened a small card from Darcy that came with a few of my favourite Honeydukes products. Then it was a tall slim card from Kendall which had a petite package of wizarding hair products that I never really used. Then they're was a card from my older brother Seth with a box containing an expensive looking camera and a note claiming _'I want to see everything!'_

"Here I guess this one's from Savannah and Indie." James said as he munched on some of the sweets from Darcy and passed me another envelope. I opened it and read.

_Dear Hadley,_

_Happy seventeenth birthday!_

_Hope you have a great day._

_Sadly, you cannot receive our gift until we're home for Christmas but we're sure you'll love it!_

_Love,_

_Savannah and Indie._

I held it out for the others to read whilst I chewed a Pepper Imp. "Well at least you know it's something good, eh?" James noted and the others agreed.

I shrugged and reached for the last envelope which was slim and had _Hadley Wilde_ written on it in a broad scrawl which I knew belonged to my father. The inside was pretty similar to what Savannah and Indie had said.

_Hadley,_

_I hope you are having an enjoyable birthday so far and a productive term at Hogwarts._

_I also hope that you realise the responsibilities you know undertake as an adult in the wizarding world._

_Your gift is not something I could send by mail and you will receive it when you return for Christmas._

_Your Father._

"Well that's that over with for another year. Who's ready for breakfast?" I announced as I tried to stretch in my now over crowded bed, all seven of us were now on top of it struggling to maintain the delicate balance.

"No, no, no."James said, "Whilst you won't be getting your proper present until tonight, we have a little something for you just now. Peter have you got it?"

Peter pulled a small box from behind his back and passed it over to me. Whilst opening the small box with my eyebrows pulled together I asked, "What's tonight?"

"Ah, that's when you'll be getting our present." Lily beamed as she looked over to Meredith who shot me a wink. I'd long ago given up trying to get any information out of them, every year they remained tight-lipped.

Finally I tugged open the packaging to reveal a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, I smiled over at the four boys, who all nodded at the box telling me to open it. I pulled open the box to reveal not the multi-coloured beans I'd expected, instead they were all brown coloured. I frowned up at them. They just sat there grinning. I picked up one and popped it in my mouth. Then another. Then another.

"You boys are unreal!" I laughed loudly, "How did you manage this?"

"Well let's just say it took a long time." James laughed.

Every single bean in the box was coffee flavoured. My favourite. I couldn't of even imagined how long it would of taken them to find so many.

"Thank you." I grinned as I leaned over to give each of them a peck on the cheek. A bright red Peter, a smiling Remus, a triumphant looking James and an unusually silent Sirius. He'd been like that for the past week. Since the day at the lake. "Who's ready for breakfast?"

"Wait you still have that card over there." Meredith pointed out, picking up the purple envelope.

"Oh, that's probably just from my neighbour back home. I'll get it later." I said as I climbed over Lily on my way to the bathroom, "Besides if I don't get some sort of food in me in the next five minutes I might just pass out!"

The four boys laughed and rolled their eyes before they filed out of the door so we could get dressed, saying that they would wait in the common room. Five minutes later, I slung my school bag over my shoulder as Lily, Meredith and I descended down the stairs.

"Ah, I really do love birthdays." Lily sighed happily as she skipped into the common room and straight out the portrait hole. As everyone made their way towards the Great Hall I quickly found my chance.

"Hey, Sirius?" I reached out to take a hold of his forearm and he turned to look down at me. "Can I have a quick word?"

"Sure," he said without missing a beat. The others continued down the corridor whilst I pulled Sirius slightly aside. "What's up?"

"Are you okay?" I asked. The corners of his mouth tugged down slightly and a crease formed between his eyebrows in confusion.

"I'm fine, Hadley. Why would you think that I'm not?" he asked.

"You were just really quiet this morning, and well you have been for the past week." I took a deep breath and lowered my eyes slightly before looking back up into his stormy grey eyes and continuing on. "If I freaked you out last week by the lake-"

"You didn't freak me out." He said matter-of-factly. "I was glad that you said all the things that you did."

I didn't understand why he could ever be glad to hear all the things I'd had to say. I'd basically told the guy that I was going psycho. That I was losing my mind, and he was glad to hear it?

"Well if everything's okay, do you mind if I speak frankly?" I said seriously.

"When have you ever not spoken frankly, Hadley?" he laughed.

"You need to stop." I told him. The laughter dried up and he squinted at me in confusion. " You need to stop looking at me like I'm about to fall apart. You need to stop treating me like I could blow up in everybody's face at any moment. You need to stop walking on eggshells whenever I'm around, Sirius, it's not fair. I _promise_ you that everything is alright, you don't need to look out for me all the time. I appreciate it, I really do, but I'm fine. Can't we just go back to before? When you'd tease me rotten for my crap balance or my chipmunk cheeks, when you'd just take the piss?"

For the past week I'd had Sirius breathing down my neck. Constantly checking on me, constantly making sure I was okay, and it was starting to piss me off. Whilst I understood that the reasons behind his actions were good, I missed my friend who I could take the piss with. For some strange reason I missed the teasing, the laughing, his hysterical efforts to have me fall at his feet. As much as it usually annoyed me, it just wasn't _Sirius and I_ without it.

He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck as he leaned against the wall. "I'm just worried about you, Bambi."

"I know, and I love you for that. But I get enough of it from Lily and Meredith. You're supposed to be the friend I go to when I can't deal with that any more. When I just need to do something so completely and unbelievably stupid that it will land me in detention." I laughed and I began to see a smile form on his full lips.

"All those things you said by the lake, do Lily and Meredith know?" Sirius asked.

"To an extent, yes. They know that I'm having problems at home with my father and my sisters. And it's kind of hard to hide it when I have a panic attack. They've- um- they've found me a couple of times afterwards and they're really worried." I told him staring at his shoes.

"They don't know everything. Do I?" He asked, it took a while for me to answer but after a minute of silence I slowly shook my head, eyes still trained on his shoelaces. "If I asked you a question would you answer truthfully?" he spoke slowly and softly. I shrugged. "You've been getting a lot of letters from your neighbour in the past couple of weeks." That he knew about. He'd only seen the few that had been dropped onto the Gryffindor table, not the ones that had come to me at other times. "Would you tell me what's in them?"

I sighed and closed my eyes before speaking quietly. "No."

Sirius sighed too, deeper than mine. Although my eyes were closed and I was looking down, I could almost see him resting his head against the stone wall behind him and running his hands through his longish dark hair that curled around his collar.

It wasn't until I felt his chin resting against the top of my head that I finally reopened my eyes. All I could see was the white of Sirius' shirt as he wrapped me into a hug. He gently patted me on the small of my back before leaning back with a wolfish grin, "Well if it's a reckless-piss-taking-devilishly-good-looking friend your after, you came to the right place."

I chuckled as we began to make our way to follow the others, "I don't remember saying anything about 'devilishly good looking', if that's what I wanted I would of asked Peter."

Sirius' head fell back as he let out an enormously loud bark of a laugh and slung an arm around my shoulder.

* * *

When Sirius and I rounded the corner to the Great Hall laughing, we found that our group had doubled in size. Alongside Lily, Meredith, James, Remus and Peter were my four sisters, Indie, Savannah, Kendall and Darcy, and also a smiling Adrian, who was happily chatting Quidditch with James.

"-and he keeps on diving for the snitch, even though it's nowhere- Hadley! Hi, Happy Birthday!" Adrian called out as he saw me approaching. As he spoke four pale blonde heads turned and repeated the greeting.

"Thanks, how's it going?" I smiled as Adrian greeted me with a warm hug and a peck on the top of my head. I turned to see Indie and Savannah with matching expressions on their identical faces, both had an eyebrow arched in questioning.

"Good. Lily and Meredith have just invited us over to the Gryffindor table for breakfast seeing as it's a special occasion. Do you mind?" he asked, his deep green eyes sparkling as he looked down at me with a broad grin.

"Of course not, I'm absolutely starved. Let's go." I smiled as we made our way through the large doors and Adrian inconspicuously wrapped his fingers loosely in mine. In the past week I'd met up with Adrian a few times. Mostly we just sat together talking quietly in the library whilst doing homework or sometimes as I was leaving Herbology and he had a free period he would wait outside the greenhouses and we would take the long way back to the castle. Tomorrow, however, was the Saturday of the first Hogsmeade visit, where he'd asked me to only just over a week ago.

The eleven of us entered the Great Hall and I quickly saw what was obviously meant for me. There was a space cleared in the middle of the long table and a place set up especially for me.

I laughed loudly as I walked towards it to find pretty much every sort of breakfast food I could imagine and a large mug of coffee sending up steam in pretty patterns. "You lot know me far too well," I grinned as I sat down in front of the plate from heaven. We somehow all managed to fit in the space with Indie, Savannah and Adrian on my right and Meredith and Kendall on my left. Directly across from me were James and Sirius along with an irritated looking Lily, Remus, Darcy and Peter.

I didn't waste any time in digging into the food in front of me and neither did the rest of them as they began reaching for whatever they could.

"I didn't know they served pancakes for breakfast here." I mumbled as I ate.

"Nah, they don't. Sirius, Remus and I went down to the House elves this morning to ask them to make them for you, you always love it when my mum makes them when your over." James spoke between spoonfuls of cereal.

I grinned back at him and turned to Adrian who was staring at me with his eyes wide and his jaw slightly dropped. "How, in the name of Merlin, can you eat so much?"

I chuckled softly before shrugging and popped another blueberry into my mouth.

"It's the chipmunk cheeks." Sirius stated, "She could store enough food for the winter in there."

I shot him a mock-serious look, which only caused him to laugh and shoot me a wink.

"Yep! Look at those little dimples!" James reached out to pinch my cheeks but I quickly slapped his hand away. "Can you believe our little Hadley's seventeen years old already?" James pretended to wipe away a tear as he turned to Remus, "The years just fly by!"

Remus rolled his eyes in reply as did Indie and Savannah. For most of the breakfast Indie and Savannah talked amongst themselves and Adrian, only talking to the rest of the group once or twice.

"So, Hadley, what are you going to do for the rest of your birthday?" Savannah asked as she pushed her food around her plate.

"Nothing much. I think Lily, Meredith and I are just going to do something small. Right?" I turned to Lily.

"I can neither confirm nor deny that." She smiled slyly.

I rolled my eyes and turned back to the twins. "We're sorry that you couldn't get your gift today." Indie said, "It ties in with Dad's so you'll definitely get it at Christmas."

"Thanks." I replied, I never really had all that much to say when it came to my sisters -well except Darcy. Kendall was silently sitting on the other side of Meredith sipping on black coffee, observing the table. Obviously she was only sitting here as she felt obligated to.

Whilst Darcy talked the ears of an amused looking James and Sirius, Adrian and the twins got up to make their way to seventh year Ancient Runes. Lily was talking with Remus and Peter while I was glancing around the Great Hall.

"Hey, Meredith." I whispered as I elbowed her in the ribs, "Isn't that Sirius' brother staring over here?"

Behind Lily's dark red head was a boy the almost double of Sirius. He was obviously tall, you could tell by the way he was folded on the bench, he had the same extremely dark, shaggy hair. Identical strong jaw, high cheekbones and aristocratic nose as his brother. The only differences I could pinpoint were the fact that eyes were a few shades darker than Sirius' grey, and the green and silver tie hanging loosely around his neck.

"You have really bony elbows!" she moaned as she massaged her ribs, before following my gaze and pulling her thin brows together. "Yeah, yeah it is, why is he looking over here?" she asked as she watched Regulus Black stare over at her, me and Kendall.

"Beats me."

* * *

_**A/N: Thank you so much for the very positive feedback on the first four chapters! As a new writer it was great to have so much support on my first ever piece of writing I've put online! I hope that it continues! And as this is my first attempt at anything like this I would appreciate it if you would take the time to review? I need some constructive criticism! Thankyouuuu!**_

_**Got any questions? PM me or leave it in a review and i'll get straight back to you!**_

_**Also I have recently been obsessed with Polyvore! I've been doing nothing but constantly adding pictures of the character from this story on there.**_

_**Check it out : www . taylorfan13. polyvore. com**_


	6. Birthday: Part II

**I know! I've been absoloutely awful! It's been so long since I last posted and I am truly sorry, I know most of you won't care for excuses but I feel I must explain myself anyway. Well, firstly my computer broke and i don't have the chapters stored anywhere else. Most of the keys on my laptop broke which made it impossible to type in my password, I could of used the guest account to write but as the H key wasn't working I didn't think you readers would be okay with me calling Hadley 'Adley' all the time! Anyway by the time my computer came back from the company i was in bloody France. Lucky, eh?  
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**Anyway, if anyone even read that^ I'll be surprised. This chapter is really short I know, but ****I felt i should at least get something out as I fet so bad! Enjoy!**_**  
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_**Disclaimer ~ I don't own the Harry Potter Universe, only the original characters and the plot ;)  
**_

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_****__**Chapter 6 – Birthday Part II: Is The Blindfold Really Necessary?**_

**Meredith**

Meredith Harrington pulled her coat tighter around her as she hurried towards the large stone entrance of Hogwarts. Everything was finally set up, and now she was going to fetch Hadley for her birthday surprise. Her and Lily had truly outdone themselves this year, even if she did say so herself. Of course the Marauders had given a helping hand as well.

Speaking of the Marauders, the silence that Meredith was trying ever so hard not to disturb – she didn't want Hadley's surprise to be found out by one of the professors before the birthday girl had even gotten to enjoy it- was abruptly broken as she reached the seventh floor and headed towards Gryffindor tower. You could always count on hearing them before you saw them.

James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew rounded the corner laughing and messing around with each other. When they spotted Meredith all four of them smiled guiltily and she rolled her eyes with a chuckle.

"Hurry up and get down there!" she told them in a quiet shout, a smile playing at her lips, "I'm going up to get Hadley just now."

"Yes chief!" Sirius saluted her before continuing down the corridor.

"Err Meredith?" James asked, before he made his way to follow his friend. "You don't happen to know where Lily is by any chance?"

_Of course._ "She was putting some final touches to the fairy lights, she'll be on her way up to meet me just now. Hurry up now, everyone's already down there."

James gave her a thankful smile before heading down the corridor. He'd been taking Hadley's advice and hadn't been constantly peppering Lily with invitations or decelerations of love, but that didn't mean he'd quit asking Meredith or Hadley about her at any moment he could.

Meredith quickly made her way through the portrait hole and skipped up the winding staircase into the sixth year girls dormitory to find Hadley sitting on her four poster bed reading a piece of weathered looking parchment.

"What you got there?" Meredith asked from behind as she plopped herself down onto Hadley's bed.

Hadley jumped, before turning to smile at Meredith while putting the letter back into her bedside cabinet. "Oh, nothing important. So are we ready to go?" she asked.

"Yep, I'll just wait for you to get dressed." Meredith smiled whilst flipping through Lily's copy of _Witch Weekly._

"Meredith, I already am dressed." Hadley laughed looking down at her tight black jeans, red trainers and a grey vintage t-shirt with the sleeves ripped off that she'd gotten when the seven of them had gone to see _The Hippogriffs_ live in concert.

"Oh, emm well I'm sorry. I just..." Meredith mumbled before Hadley could stop her.

"Don't worry about it, Mer. Can you just pick something for me to wear so Lil' won't murder me? You know I'm terrible at this stuff." Hadley smiled, a laugh still etched on her face.

"Okay here," Meredith laughed as she tossed a few items of clothing out of her friends dresser towards her.

"Your a lifesaver, you know what Lily's like." Hadley laughed as she pulled on the mint green blouse that set off her skin tone perfectly.

"Yeah, and what's Lily like?" asked the tall red-headed girl, smiling widely as she walked in.

"Oh you know. Absolutely brilliant." Hadley teased.

"That's what I like to hear. Oh look you managed to pick out your own clothes and for once your not wearing jeans!" Lily teased as she approved of Hadley's clothes. Hadley stood there in the blouse and a white lacy skirt that fell above the knee and made her already long legs look never ending. Her dark hair fell in effortless waves down to the middle of her black catching even the smallest bit of light. Even the most secure girl in the world couldn't stand beside Hadley Wilde without developing some major self esteem issues. Meredith included.

"See I told you she wouldn't need a dresser, she's a big girl Lil' she can choose her own clothes." Meredith grinned and shot Hadley a wink when Lily wasn't looking.

Five minutes later Hadley had pulled on a pair of black ankle boots, borrowed from Lily, and was being lead out of the common room by her two best friends.

"Is the blindfold really necessary? I can barely stay upright when I can actually _see_ where I'm going, never mind when I'm blind!" Hadley laughed as she tripped through the Entrance Hall. "Are we _outside_?"

Lily shot a wide grin over Hadley's head towards Meredith who was already fighting to keep her laughter under control. "Don't worry about it Hadley, we're nearly there. Can you pass me your camera?" Lily asked. Hadley passed the camera she'd received that morning from her brother Seth to Lily. The small square object had barely left Hadley's hands since breakfast, she'd been snapping pictures of her friends non-stop.

Finally after a quick walk in the cool October air they reached the edges of the forest. They walked for a further minute before they reached their destination.

"Right, that's us here. I'm going to take the blindfold off okay?" Meredith said as Lily took a step forward and pointed the camera towards Hadley's face. "3... 2... 1!" As Meredith loosened an old tie of Remus' from Hadley's eyes, a small clearing in the forest lit up with fairy lights, and some real live fairies, in the trees and showed a small gathering of people who cheered _'Happy Birthday!'_ as the blindfold was removed.

Hadley's eyes grew wide as she took in the smiling people, the makeshift table covered in Honeydukes products, Butterbeer and Firewhiskey and also heard the faint music that was playing in the clearing.

"Holy shit." Hadley muttered as her jaw hung slightly ajar. "I knew you had something planned but... wow." She blinked a few times before a wide grin spread across her lips and she engulfed her two best friends in a hug, "Thank you, this is wonderful."

"I sure hope I get a hug like that." a low voice chuckled from behind Hadley. Meredith watched as Sirius grinned down at Hadley with his usual mischievous twinkle in his eye.

"Ah, of course. Who else could get all of that," she pointed towards the refreshment table, "past Filch and McGonagall. Thank you guys." Hadley beamed as she gave each of the four Marauders an equally as big hug. James lifting the small girl up and twirling her around a few times, laughing as she stumbled when he put her down.

"Well, let's get to it then, Hadley I'll go get you a drink, I think your sisters were looking for you, they're over there." Lily said pointing over towards a group of Ravenclaw girls. Lily and Meredith had spent time wondering who would be invited to Hadley's surprise birthday celebration. Obviously there would be the two themselves, the Marauders and Hadley's sisters – except Darcy as she was only in her first year. They'd invited Adrian and a few of his friends that Hadley had seemed to like and also a few Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs from the year above that Hadley got along well with. Apart from them Hadley seemed to keep to herself a lot of the time, keeping to the close friends she had.

* * *

A while later, Meredith stood on the outskirts of the clearing, proud of her handiwork. She took a sip of her Butterbeer, proudly looking on as Hadley laughed and danced with Adrian, Lily, their dorm mate Diana and a pair of seventh year Gryffindors, Marlene and Dorcas. She looked as if she didn't have a care in the world. Meredith knew that wasn't true.

"She really needed this you know." Meredith jumped as the voice spoke behind her.

She turned around and relief sank in as she spotted the source of the voice. She whacked Sirius across the chest as he reached her side. "Merlin, Sirius. You scared the crap out of me." Meredith chuckled as she turned back to observe the celebrations before her. "But yeah, I know. She really did."

"She told me everything y'know. I know what's going on." she looked across to Sirius and noted his grim expression and the worry in his eyes as he watched Hadley intently.

"Well, maybe you can explain it to me because I am so completely out of my depth here." Meredith sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose before beginning to ramble on. "One minute she's completely fine and the next I find her passed out on the bathroom floor or with that blank look that she has. It _scares_ me and I don't know what to do. Lily worries too, she wants to tell somebody but Hadley's entirely against it. I think she's worried it will get back to her dad or something. She's been having these panic attacks, or whatever they are, ever since her Mum died but they're happening so much more often this year and I... I don't know what to _do_ Sirius. I can't keep on pretending that everything is okay.I love her but I can't do it for much longer. I just _can't..._"

Meredith took a much needed breath and discreetly wiped a small tear of worry for her friend off of her cheek. She heard Sirius sigh beside her and she felt him put an arm around her shoulder and squeeze her into his side.

She looked up to see Sirius still watching Hadley intently, worry even more prominent on his handsome features. "I know, Mer. I know."

They stood like that for another minute. Friend comforting friend.

"Sirius..." Meredith began, but she sucked in a deep breath and powered on, "I might be out of order here, but I have to ask." Sirius looked at her with a confused look but she carried on, knowing there was a 99.9% chance he wouldn't like what she had to say. "You've been through a huge ordeal with your family, after everything that went down at home you of all people would understand whatever it is that Hadley seems to be going through. I understand that it might be hard-"

"No." Sirius stated clearly. Meredith looked up to see his confused face gone and in it's place was a set jaw and a stubborn glint in his eyes.

"Sirius,_ please._ You two are so close and I'm sure that-" Meredith was yet again cut off by Sirius' husky replies.

"No. Our situations are completely different." Meredith opened her mouth again to continue her pleas but Sirius gave her a harsh look and she seemed to back down. "I don't want to talk about it any more."

Meredith gave a small, sad smile and nodded in agreement. "Okay. I had to try though, you know I had to." She reached up and patted him on the shoulder and Sirius nodded his understanding, but still remained silent and with his jaw clenched.

They stood in silence for a few moments when all of a sudden they heard a branch break under foot a couple of feet to they're right. Both Sirius and Meredith whirled simultaneously to face Kendall as she stepped out of the surrounding trees.

"Oh Kendall it's just you!" Meredith laughed in relief as she held a hand to her heart. Trying for a light and airy tone she joked, "I swear, having a party in the woods at night wasn't one of our best ideas."

There was another noise coming from the trees coming from exactly where Kendall had stepped out. A dark shape fled in the opposite direction, back towards the castle.

"Who was that?" Sirius asked seriously nodding his head in the direction of where the dark shape had been.

"How would I know?" Kendall replied coolly, before smoothing her frosty blonde hair and stepping further into the clearing towards the group of people.

* * *

_**A/N: Thank you so much for the very positive feedback on the first five chapters! As a new writer it was great to have so much support on my first ever piece of writing I've put online! I hope that it continues! And as this is my first attempt at anything like this I would appreciate it if you would take the time to review? I need some constructive criticism! Thankyouuuu!**_

_**Got any questions? PM me or leave it in a review and i'll get straight back to you!**_

_**Also I have recently been obsessed with Polyvore! I've been doing nothing but constantly adding pictures of the character from this story on there.**_

_**Check it out : www . taylorfan13. polyvore. com**_

_**P.S There won't be such a long wait between chapters again, I promise! Sorry again.  
**_


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